Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ULSTER FAMILY’S HURRICANE HELL
Tree smashes US house Storm family cheat death
A NORTHERN Ireland family are lucky to be alive after Hurricane Irma sent a tree crashing through the roof of their Florida home.
Gary Dunseath said he was playing cards with his wife and three children at a torch-lit table just before the near-tragedy struck.
The family then spent the rest of Sunday night huddled together as the wind and rain poured in.
Gary, from Magherafelt, Co Derry, said: “It was a pretty harrowing experience. If you move to Florida you have to expect there will be storms but this was something else.
“When the tree came through our house nobody could get to us.
“This was 11 o’clock at night. The storm was already here and we lost power about five hours before.
“We were playing Uno as my youngest wanted to and we got down to the very last card.”
The estate agent told how he helped wife Tammy and children Micah, 17, Jedidiah, 15, and 13-yearold Hadassah had finished the game seconds before the tree collapsed.
He said: “We just got up, away from the table when it happened.
ADRENALINE
“At least nobody was hurt. It was so dark and the winds were howling around us. We couldn’t see.
“We called the emergency services but they couldn’t get to us. So we went into another corner of the house and we just had to ride it out.”
The family had already planned to sleep on mattresses on the ground floor of their home.
He said: “We were in the eye of the storm. I think your adrenaline is running that high waiting for the unknown.
“We didn’t know what the damage was and then you can’t go anywhere because you can’t use the roads.”
Hurricane Irma took down two more buildings and around 15 trees on the Dunseaths’ property.
Gary, who left Northern Ireland in 1993 to go travelling, said: “It was the worst. It went on a good 24 hours before the winds even phased off. We had the hurricane coming and then a tornado warning.
“At least our house is not flooded. People in Jacksonville, they got pummelled again after last year.” Gary said it could now take months and up to £45,000 to rebuild his house.
The family have also been forced from their home near Ocala, Marion County, over structure fears.
But the Dunseaths are facing more immediate problems.
Gary said: “We are still without water. They’re saying it may be 10 days and there are still over four million people without power.
“There is a three-hour wait for gas and then when you get there, they have none left. We stocked up a good bit because we knew it was coming.”
The Dunseaths, who have been living an hour from Orlando for seven years, have a good network of friends.
Gary said: “There’s a great community feeling and everybody’s looking out for each other.”
He told how his family are staying with friends as they are not
We’ve been in floods before. All of my kids roll with the punches GARY DUNSEATH FLORIDA YESTERDAY
allowed in their home for 90 days while it is assessed by experts.
Gary said he is also proud of how his children coped.
He added: “We’ve been in floods before. They roll with the punches. When we lived in Africa we had no power and water for months.”