Her home might be shattered, but Roanoke Rapids mother Chelsea Gizzard is just thankful she and her son are still alive after a powerful thunderstorm blasted through town on Friday.
“By the grace of God, it did not take and kill my young one,” Grizzard said while staring at the century-old oak that split her family home in two.
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Grizzard was getting ready to celebrate her birthday Friday evening when the storm hit. A pulse of wind uprooted the tree in her backyard on Jefferson Streey and sent it crashing through the ceiling, first into her son’s bedroom, then into hers.
“That used to be a gaming chair,” she said, pointing to a spot now covered in debris just inches from the tree’s trunk. “That’s where he was at.”
“He was screaming for me, and I couldn’t locate him,” Grizzard said. “My whole thing was ‘Get out. I need you to get out. And away from the house.’ And he did.”
At the same time, Grizzard was fighting for her own life. She was standing in between her bed and dresser when the tree hit. The impact was hard enough it collapsed the floor and sent her and her belongings crashing down to the foundation below.
“All this came down on top of me here,” Grizzard said, pointing to boards and chunks of insulation.
Both Grizzard and her son managed to crawl free, jumping from the front porch, before rushing to the hospital. Ultimately both escaped with just “minimum scratches, bruising and some soreness.”
The day after the storm, damage was easy to spot around Roanoke Rapids. The brief shock of rain and wind uprooted dozens of trees and snapped hundreds of branches. Homes, sheds and cars were damaged across the city.
Thousands were left without power, with generators humming away in many neighborhoods and drivers navigating intersections with no traffic lights. At one house on Monroe Street, a pickup truck was even left dangling in the air, lifted by a fallen tree’s root ball.
“Well, we survived it,” said Quintin Ryder Jr, who lives across the street from the truck.
Ryder said his house is fine, but he’s bracing for what could be days without power for his oxygen machine.
“I’m having to use little bottles,” he said.
For her part, Chelsea Grizzard said she’s trying to figure out what comes next after losing a home that’s been in her family for generations.
“We’re going to see,” Grizzard said. “We’re going to see what can and can’t be saved, and we’ll go from there.”