Like a 'horror movie': Cape Anguille woman trapped in home smashed by windstorm
Mary Loder of Cape Anguille watched her bathroom disintegrate as a storm, packing winds of 153 km/h, pounded into her home, trapping her inside for several tense hours.
"I thought I was on this horror movie, or a dark dream, or something," Loder told the Corner Brook Morning Show.
"I reached for a towel, then there was a big bang, the window popped out and stuck onto the wall. I ducked and it passed by me."
Loder remembers the rush of cold air, from the fierce storm that whipped through southwestern Newfoundland on Wednesday, March 15.
"The medicine cabinet and toilet, the vanity and the tub, everything was smashed. Ceilings came down, walls came down, I didn't know what it was."
When Loder rushed to the living room to look out the window to her front yard and driveway, she began to see the real scale of the damage.
A roof from an unoccupied house nearby had come crashing down on top of her own home and the vehicles parked outside.
"The two vehicles were smashed to pieces," she said. "Because half the [neighbouring] roof was on top of them. Then the porch gave way, then the bridge (deck), the back exit."
Trapped inside for hours
Men from the community tried to get Loder out, but it took them a while because the weight of the neighbour's roof had wedged her back door shut, and flying debris kept them away.
"You're ducking boards and everything else; you got a half a house coming toward you, and you're not going to risk trying to get through it."
Finally, around 8 a.m. Thursday, Loder and her dog were able to get out of her home. She said she had "a few injuries, but it wasn't that bad. Mentally, it took me off balance."
With the damage to the house and vehicles, Loder said there's "a lot of work to be done."
She is grateful about one thing. Her dog woke her up in the middle of the night because it wanted to go outside, but she kept it in. If she hadn't, her pet would have likely been killed by the flying roof.
"I'll thank God every day of my life."
