Submitted by Fox First at Ten on December 17th
CHENEY, Wash – Outside the Marlin family home near Cheney Monday morning, the winds were ripping through at a brisk 50+ mph. Winds that caused a lot of damage – and heartache – then the roof of their mobile home blew right off.
"This morning I saw stuff starting to fall off, and all I did is sit in my living room and pray to God that my roof wouldn't come off, but He must have been awfully busy this morning," mother Terri Marlin told KHQ through tears.
Terri had just left for work, leaving her husband, three kids, and her son's girlfriend inside the home.
Then at 8:30am, 12-year-old Tyger Marlin told us she was awoken to a loud sound:
"I just woke up to a boom, and I thought we were having a thunder storm and a huge lightning bolt happened or something," she said.
"My husband called me and said, ‘It's going to go, it's going to go,' then he called me back and said, ‘It's gone.' And this is what we have," Terri added, her gaze fixed on the top of their home, where their roof once stood.
Now, just a week before Christmas, they're devastated. Their roof is now completely peeled back, landing just a few feet from a power line. Boards that once attached to it are flapping in the wind, and pieces of insulation were ripped away by the bursts of wind and carried throughout the yard.
"It's rapidly blowing off, as you can see all down our fence line, most of our insulation from the roof is all down that way," Terri added.
But with no break in the wind Monday, they can't begin to fix it, or even put a tarp over their home to protect it from water; and another storm is on its way in.
Still, there's one thing this storm couldn't blow away: the Marlin family's love for each other, and spirit to get through this.
"This too shall pass," Terri said, almost in a chant.
The Red Cross was expected to help the family find a warm place to stay in the meantime.
