JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A family in Jacksonville's Arlington area spent Thursday night with a hole in their living room ceiling and no power after a tree came crashing down onto their roof as Helene swept through the area.
The front door of the McClellans home, part of the car port, the living room, and two bedrooms are now unusable, after part of a tree came crashing down.
“It’s all over the floor… it’s very upsetting, as you can tell," Chris McClellan, the homeowner, said.
McClellan, his wife, their two adult sons and the family’s dog were inside. They said the tree came down Thursday just before midnight. The branches barely missed the bed in their son’s room.
Like thousands of other people, the family was forced to spend the night in the dark as power was lost in the neighborhood. At the height of the hurricane, the family sat inside with flashlights, a hole in their ceiling and rain from the storm pouring in.
"We quickly tried to move everything into the den," McClellan told First Coast News. "It's now a storage area. We didn’t know what to do. Moved it into that room to try and save it."
No one was hurt, but with over 20 years of memories in their home, the McClellans were emotional seeing the destruction left behind.
"My mother passed away in April and we were getting ready to sell her home, so now we’re going to have to empty this place out and take it over there and then somehow get this place rebuilt and then move back in here and then sell her home," McClellan said.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, before you start cleaning or making any repairs, remember to contact your insurance agent, take pictures of the damage, and keep records of repair and cleaning costs.