This may not look like a blessing, especially to our landlord, but trust me it could have been so much worse. First blessing, the timing. This happened right about noon today. I had picked up Colton from school and felt the need to hurry inside to fix lunch, even though there was no real need to hurry. I closed the front door, walked across the room, heard a big gust of wind, and felt a huge bang that shook the building. I first thought earthquake, but then the shaking quit, so I then thought, "Who hit the building?", it has happened before. I told the kids to stay put, and went outside. The neighbors were standing in the parking lot staring at the grass. That is when I saw all the brick and figured it out. Now the brick has had a gap near the top for years. We recently got new siding, I think all the pounding made the problem worse, and the wind we have had all night last night and today did it in.
The second blessing about the timing was that the older kids were still in school. By 4:00, the grass where the bricks now lay is normally covered with about a dozen children playing soccer or football. In the evenings they are typically joined by the older parts of their families, thus the folding chair. If the brick had fallen then, well let's just say it is a good thing I know CPR, and there is a field right next door for Lfeflight to land in. It would have been deadly.
The next blessing is where the brick broke off. As you can see above the natural gas meters are on that side of the building. The brick broke off right about chin level on me. Much lower and there would have been a major natural gas leak or explosion. Same thing if the brick had fallen straight down instead of leaning out.
Next blessing is that there is very little structural damage. Other than a few small holes where the supports pulled out, the side of the building is intact. In my very untrained opinion, the landlord shouldn't have much trouble just putting some more siding on this side of the building too. I feel for the poor guy, he already is putting out tens of thousands in upgrades and repairs at the command of West Valley City, and then this happens. But like I said it most deffinately could be worse! I have finally stopped shaking from the adrenaline rush, I guess Erik and I will be spending our evening helping with the clean up when the landlord arrives. If you ever wonder if the Lord is watching out for us, the answer my friends is most deffinately YES! I hope your day is blessed...mine sure was.
8 comments:
Woah! So the whole wall just spontaneoulsy fell down? That's crazy.
That is incredible! I have to say that I have recently felt as though the Lord was looking out for me more often than usual these days. I've had two very small crises in two days, which for many people would not have been crises, but for me they were. And both times, when I reached the end of my rope and was praying for more help, some outside force began operating and the problems were solved without further ado. I swear, even though I had done everything I could to improve my situation, nothing was going right until I prayed. Then, within minutes of the prayer, things turned around. It's amazing.
That's insane! I'm glad you guys are all okay!
wish i saw this the other day ... i could have walked down the street hollering "AMY!!!!" --michelle who's currently down the street until saturday
Makes me easy to find anyway. They cleaned up the bricks off the grass this morning, but I don't know what they decided for repairing the bare wall. Good to hear from you Michelle. We are starting to get a good number of the old gang back in touch through this blogging stuff.
One more reason you are blessed: you don't own the building. That is some of the shoddiest workmanship I've ever heard of. The construction company ought to be paying for this, not your poor landlord.
Glad you're all safe, though. :)
Writer, you sound like the landlord's wife. He stood there looking like he wanted to cry, she paced up and down the sidewalk screaming about regulations, and building codes and strangling someone. I guess the same thing happened six years ago to the building you can see in the background of a few of the pictures. They were going to ask the owner of that building and see if they were able to get anywhere with finding the builders. The buildings are 30-40 years old, so the company may not exist anymore.
Well, sorry, but it's true. No one should construct a building that does this in a strong wind. Now, if there'd been an earthquake, it would be understandable. But this is just bad workmanship. I am sorry for the current owners, for, as you say, the people who are really to blame are not likely to have to face up to their dishonesty and the trouble it has caused.
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