Episode 29 - February 4, 1999 - Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

Life in Oak Springs, the Homeplace

February 1999

This series of posts on each Friday, moving forward during 2016 will continue the stories of “The Homeplace Saga” series of family saga, historical fiction families in the area of Oak Springs following the novel “Christmas at the Homeplace,” which ended as 1997 began.

Earlier, we have seen the community move from January 1997 through January 1999. We now continue our story on February 4th of 1999, continuing in episodic serial format…

Episode 29 - Thursday, Feb. 4th - Lori, at the Homeplace Country Inn - late evening

[From Episode 28:

As they turned to do that, a Deputy Sheriff pulled into the driveway…]

Deputy: You folks need any help here?

Gary: I think we have it under control here… some serious roof damage on the far side, but no injuries.

Lori: Was it a tornado? We saw the Hollingsworth place…

Deputy: We are assessing that now. So far, the worst damage is at the Hollingsworth farm. All the buildings are gone there. Thankfully, no one was living there right now.

Lori: How about Bart Bevins’ place, the Stables?

Deputy: Just came from there. They’re ok. Just tree limbs down, and such.

Lori: Any word on electricity?

Deputy: Crews are out. Outage is fairly localized, we think. If so, they should be able to repair it fairly quickly. Let us know if you need anything. Otherwise, I’ll be on down the road, to check on others.

Lori: Thank you!

Lori joined Maria inside, while Gary took the first ladder around to the far side. In about a half hour, Gary came back in to see Lori.

Gary: Let’s go walk upstairs, together, now that I’ve looked at the damage from the outside.

Gary had his large flashlight, so Lori went with him, to the stairs to the second floor. Once they had assured that the stairway was clear, they went on up, cautiously, Gary leading the way. As they arrived at the second floor landing, in the beam of Gary’s light, they could see the collapsed ceiling about half way down the hall, and even open air, in places. Gary called out to Trace, who responded and they carefully moved ahead, to further assess the damage. The four rooms at the end of the hall were completely demolished with the roof gone. It was hard to tell how much damage there was to the walls and ceilings ‘this side of’ those rooms.

Gary: We’ll work toward getting some tarp up here to minimize any further water damage to the balance of the second floor. There was not a lot of rain after the damage was done, so that is good, so far. It is possible there will be more rain, tonight, however, so that will be our first job. There does not appear to be damage to the floor on this level, nor the ceiling of the first floor. We want to minimize the water damage. You were lucky there.

Lori: For as bad as it is, it could have been so much worse.

Gary: Yes, my thoughts exactly.

Lori: Well, let’s get about doing what we must do. How can I help?

They talked about that as they returned to the main floor, and got to work. Lori decided to wait until morning to call Karen, after she had seen the damage in the daylight. It might look much different then.

[To be continued, next Friday]

"May everyone have a homeplace, if only in your mind."

Dr. Bill  ;-)