KIMBALL, Tenn. (WDEF)- A Marion County family is grateful to be alive today following last night’s severe storms.
It was 1:30 Monday morning at Josh Sitz’s Kimball home on Grover Hill Road when the severe line of storms made it to his house.
Sitz said, “The wind was blowing fierce. I heard it actually whistling through the window cracks and stuff, and that you know I like my nature stuff so I wanted to come out and check it out and smoke my cigarette and I didn’t make it.”
He didn’t know that seconds would decide his fate.
Sitz said, “When I pulled my cigarette out of my pack, the last cigarette I had, I literally looked at my box. I sat down on the edge of the bed for about 5-10 seconds and then I decided to get up and go ahead to come outside on the porch and smoke a cigarette, and about the time I touched the door handle and started to open it. The whole roof just came down.”
A neighbor’s tree falling into his house was the culprit of the roof falling in, causing at least $80,000 in damage.
Sitz said, “One tree took out the house and five cars and a couple lawnmowers.”
In addition to Sitz’s close call on the front porch, his sister and her husband were sleeping in this bed in a different bedroom, and they came very close to being taken out by the tree.
Sitz said in the aftermath, “So you know, I went around, checking on everybody else to make sure they were alright and all was good with everybody. I mean it’s given the situation and the circumstances.”
He says that while their future is uncertain, they’re just lucky to get to make those decisions.
Sitz said, “We just gotta roll with it and see where where it takes us. Maybe God‘s watching out for us.”
We saw Marion County emergency management get the family in contact with the American Red Cross, and a GoFundMe has been created for the family.
