HIGH POINT, N.C. — A family in High Point is sharing their lessons learned from past storms as the Piedmont Triad braces for Thursday’s threat of severe weather.
On March 28, 2010, an EF-3 tornado moved across north High Point damaging hundreds of homes.
“Dry wall, gone. Furniture, gone. Flooring, gone. All stripped to the studs,” said Jill Carter.
The storm’s violent winds blew out windows and ripped the roof off Carter’s house, then dumped inches of rain inside.
Carter and her husband were out of the country when the tornado hit, but her 89-year-old mother was home. She ended up in the basement by pure accident.
Carter says the family was caught off guard and she’s vowed to never let it happen again.
She’s invested in a weather radio and other tools she needs to stay weather aware.
“I think I’m reasonably cautious instead of paranoid cautious as I was for a couple of years,” said Carter.
Carter’s damages totaled in the hundreds of thousands, but her family quickly learned what makes a house a home are the people in it.
“Eleven years down the road now, if I’d lost people, I wouldn’t be over it. I lost a bunch of stuff,” said Carter.
Carter says it also pays to put a lot in the bank in terms of friendship. She says neighbors and friends were laying documents out on the lawn to dry and helping her family pack what they could salvage.
