Help Jed rebuild

Hi,

my name is Gabrielle and my siblings and I are fundraising for our Dad, Jed Culican, who just lost his almost finished, uninsured home, in a freak 10 minute storm on Sunday 25th August.

Less than an hour beforehand, Dad and I had been walking around the new home, excitedly planning the layout. We went down to his tiny home, only 100 meters away, for a cup of tea and at 5 it began to rain. The wind started to ramp up, so much so that the screen door started to slide back and forth by itself, the blossom trees around the tiny house snapped in half and rolled on by as the rain came in sideways, in white sheets, blurring the glass.

Dad suggested we move into the bedroom away from the glass, so we watched from his bedroom window, on the opposite side of the house, as all of the trees snapped and a big horse truck was flipped onto its side.

The wind roared by so loudly we couldn’t hear anything else. We thought the roof was going to come off the tiny house and we were planing to shelter under the bed. It was like nothing we had ever seen before in this part of the country!

It was quite terrifying…

The storm passed as quickly as it came, and as it slowed, two of Dads dogs appeared from nowhere, also terrified. I asked him if there was only two dogs, and he replied there was another.

The wind had died down so I ran out to find that the triple dog cage had been lifted clean off the ground and carried over a fence and tree line and was now about 8 meters away from its usual location, with a Border Collie still inside!

The poor girl was petrified, but ok, as I let her out. The other dogs must of fallen out during the journey, but her door was jammed.

I ran back down to the tiny home, not sure if it was over yet.

We emerged in absolute shock to discover that every thing had been destroyed within a 150 meter corridor, like a wind tunnel, yet the tiny home was completely unscathed, thankfully.

Dad commented that his roof had probably gone, so as I walked around the side of the tiny home, I looked up on the hill behind us to see that the house had been practically gutted.

I put my hand over my mouth, speechless and looked back at Dad as he came to see what remained. He crumbled beside me in horror to see that his whole house had been opened up like a tin can. After years of debating whether to build or not, committing to it, and working so hard over the past few months- it was all gone.

We slowly made our way up to the house site, fighting back tears, in utter disbelief trying to process the devastation.

The power was out all around us. We were later told the power poles had snapped in half.

When our neighbour arrived, he told us he received a tornado warning that day and had laughed it off- we would have too!

The next day we discovered the roof trusses in the back lane, 100 meters away from the house, and beyond into the paddock, as well as finless ceiling fans and electrical wiring, installed just days before.

And so the clean up began…

Thank you in advance to anyone who is willing to donate! We are so grateful for all of the help and support! Everyone has been incredibly kind!

It means so much to us all, and every bit counts in helping Dad rebuild his home!