MAURY COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's hard to believe, but it's been a week since tornadoes tore across Middle Tennessee. It caused significant damage and one Maury County woman lost her life.
For Thomas O'Reilly, a Maury County resident, some of the storm trauma remains fresh. "Everything was shaking, of course, we were all upset," he said.
It was only after they went outside, that his family learned how close of a call it truly was. "The house, just pure luck, the huge tree fell away from the house," O'Reilly said. "As the root ball rolled up, it came within about that close to the house."
Other parts of his farm weren't as lucky. His beloved greenhouse was leveled. More than 50 trees were left broken and twisted across his farm. His barn was nearly destroyed. "It got hit pretty hard. It shifted the frame about two and a half feet," he said.
Still, O'Reilly says he's grateful the damage wasn't so much worse. "It’s not a matter of luck for us on the way it came through here, it’s a miracle," O'Reilly said.
While the clean-up continues, the rebuild may still be months away. Because the O'Reilly family didn't see substantial damage to their home, they're far down the list for the insurance adjuster to come out and give them a quote. Thomas says he completely understands why. "A lot of people got a whole lot more damage than we have. We got extremely lucky," O'Reilly said.
That being said, with 250 homes damaged in Maury County alone, it could be a while. In the meantime, Thomas and his family plan to focus on their cleanup so that weeks from now, they can help their neighbors. "When we get done, if there’s still people who need help, we’ll be going to meet them because we’ve just had a huge amount of help," he said.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
