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When the severe storm came through Valley Grande last Wednesday several houses had limbs and trees down in their yard.

Not many houses had damage directly to their houses themselves. Teri Adams of Valley Grande suffered some of the worst damage from the storm at her house, located on the corner of Highway 86 and St.Andrews.

“I had just got home,” Adams said. “It just happened so fast. I have a before and after photo that I had taken. I was on Facetime with my daughter earlier and she said that she had heard something fall and make a bang in the back of the house. I took a picture of a big limb that had fallen with the previous storm that had come through an hour and a half before.”

When Adams got home, it immediately got to a terrible point.

“When I pulled up I snapped a picture of the backyard for her. Then I grabbed my purse and went to the back door,” Adams said. “My daughter usually meets me at the back door. I rang the doorbell but she didn’t answer because the power was out. I tried to pull my keys out of my purse but it was on us so quickly. When the first tree fell onto the house I was still trying to find my keys. Then they started falling all around.”

When the trees started to fall Adams realized that her 12-year-old daughter was still in the house.

“The trees started to fall near the carport and I took off running,” Adams said. “I was actually trying to make it to the front door to get to my daughter. I ended up making it to the side of the house and I got down, covered my head, and got up against the brick wall and I just stayed there and prayed and screamed. I did not think I was going to make it past that day.”

Adam’s son was on his way for a trip he planned for months, leaving his sister at home alone.

“My son works nights and he’s always home when I’m at work,” Adams said. “It just happened to be that day he left at about 3 p.m. He had a trip he had been planning for months. When the first alarms went off, he called me and said Mom I’m only 10 minutes away do you need me to turn around? I said ‘No go ahead and go I am going to Facetime your sister?’”

Her daughter shot a video from inside the house and she says she can not watch the full video.

“My daughter has a video and I watched halfway through and I just can’t bring myself to watch it,” Adams said. “She’s just screaming. She’s screaming my name. The whole time she thinks I was gone. It’s very traumatizing for me. I can’t watch it.”

According to Adams, in less than a minute the storm came, did a lot of damage, and then disappeared.

“As soon as it was over it was over,” Adams said. “Everything was over. The wind was blowing a little bit but not crazy like it was before. The rain was completely gone. I jumped up grabbed my purse and poured it out on the floor. I grabbed my keys and got inside… When I got that door open I was screaming and my daughter was running towards me.”

Adams and her family had to find a place to stay because of the damage done to her home. They are now currently staying in a hotel with their daughter husband son and dogs for the foreseeable future.

“We met our insurance adjuster the other day and he gave the timeline of nine months to a year before we can get back into our home,” Adams said. “Also he’s not a contractor. We will have to wait and see what our contractor says and let him look at what he can.”

With all the damage and fear from that storm, Adams and her daughter were able to walk away with only a few minor bruises and for that, the family feels blessed.

“I thought I was not going to be able to get up from that position,” Adams said. “To be able to walk away with just small bruises where limbs and debris were hitting me so I’m blessed.”