TOMBSTONE, Ariz. (KGUN) — Eight minutes changed a Tombstone’s family’s life.
“It was mostly 'hold on and pray',” Michael Slentz said.
A microburst last Friday caused significant damage to the home he shares with his wife, Kirsten Evans. He says the manufactured home split in half, where the add-on was, and the roof on the add-on blew off.
“It was only about eight minutes, but I'll tell you that was one of the longest eight minutes that I've experienced” Slentz said.
He was holding on to a piece of the roof while his wife was sheltering their daughter in the bathroom and running around the house trying to save some of their stuff.
"My biggest fear is that he was going to be picked up with a sheet of metal and he was going to be taken out of the house,” Evans said.
The couple says it felt like they were in tornado, with high winds, hail and rain.
The family searched around the neighborhood and in the Tombstone Cemetery, located across from their house, to pick up metal from the roof and other items that blew away from their house.
“It looks like a, like a war zone in there," Slentz said. "It's stuff thrown everywhere. There's holes in some of the walls from some of the stuff that got slammed into it.
"It's hard to look at.”
But the couple has looked at it, everyday since last week's storm.
“We have to save as much as we can,” Evans said.
The kids are staying with their grandma while the parents sort through what’s left. Slentz says they don't know if the house is still livable, with only half the house stable, with electricity, and not damaged. That's the reason the couple says their kids aren't currently staying there.
“I know some of my books and some family mementos and things like that we've definitely lost," Evans said. "My laptop for school is drying out currently, to see if it will be salvageable.”
As for the house, it’s split in half and the roof is missing. Slentz tied tarps where the roof should be. He says those tarps were donated to them, an effort to help the family prevent further damage. He says they are trying to clean up what they can, because they are hoping to save the house.
“If it is save-able, we're trying to make sure that it doesn't get so far beyond repair," Slentz said.
He says he and Evans usually fix what needs to be done around their house but this is beyond his scope of knowledge. Slentz says he wants to find help so he'll knows if the house can be fixed, or if they’ll have to leave the only home his children have known.
“I'm just not sure how we'd start from scratch, you know, not right this minute,” he said.
Evans' workplace created a GoFundMe for the family and the City of Tombstone said donations can dropped off at their building, 613 E. Allen Street, for the family.
The family says they will take things "minute by minute" until they get though this unfortunate life event.
Disclaimer: KGUN 9 doesn’t publish or endorse links to any GoFundMe pages because we do not have the resources to track the legitimacy of each account or how any donations are used.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
