She sits in her dad’s red truck, her blue eyes welling with tears, staring at the home she has lived in for the past 13 years. On Wednesday, Hurricane Michaelleft it in shambles.
It also took her husband, Steve Sweet, with it.
As Michael roared Wednesday afternoon through the Panhandle and Big Bend area, The couple walked onto the front porch of their home in Gretna, a town of about 1,400 residents 25 miles northwest of Tallahassee and less than 10 miles from the Georgia border.They heard a tall pine tree crash down across the street.
They quickly shuffled back inside to shelter from the wind that was picking up when a large oak tree smashed through their roof, taking them down with it.
“The wind came whipping across,” she said. “And the next thing I know, it went black.
Steve Sweet, 44, was pinned under the tree, his torso sprawled on her lap. Her left leg twisted under the trunk.
She cried for help and was able to phone her dad, who lives nearby. He came with her brother-in-law and pulled her out.
She made it out alive. Her husband didn’t.
Her dad and brother-in-law weren’t able to pull him out from under the weight of the tree. He died in her lap.
“It’s a nightmare, just a nightmare,” said Gayle Sweet, 53, shaking her head. “And I keep trying to wake up.”
Steve Sweet is one of four reported deaths in Gadsden County from the passage of Hurricane Michael, which came ashore in the Panhandle as a Category 4 storm. So far, seven deaths have been attributed to the storm, five in Florida, one in Georgia and one in North Carolina.
Another of the victims is in Greensboro, about 6 miles southwest of Gretna, said Sgt. Anglie Hightower, Gadsden County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. Media reports put another fatality in Quincy, about 5 miles southeast of Gretna.
Most residents were without power in the county, which is less than 100 miles east of Mexico Beach, where the storm made landfall. In Michael's aftermath, downed power lines and oak trees split at the bases of their trunks are a common sight in the county seat of Quincy.
On Thursday, more than 18 hours after Michael brought her tragedy, Gayle Sweet appeared still dazed, streaks of dry blood stain in her blonde hair. She hit her head when the tree crashed.
Red cuts line her left shoulder and foot. Michael not only stole her husband, but the storm's aftermath frustrated attempts to recover his body.
As of 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, Steve Sweet’s body was still inside their damaged house. Gayle Sweet refused to go to the hospital until he is out.
She closed her eyes and whispered: “I just want him out. I just want them to get him out.”
A Federal Emergency Management Agency representative stopped by to assess damage around 8 a.m., she said. A Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office investigator also stopped by.
She was told that the county had other fatalities and wasn’t given a time as to when he could be pulled out.
Steve Sweet was a sales manager at the Chevrolet-Buick Quincy dealership, where Gayle is an office manager. They just celebrated their 15th anniversary on Valentine’s Day.
The soft-hearted man with the silly sense of humor would give his wife bracelets and necklaces. He had her name tattooed onto his arm.
“He was one of a kind,” she said.
Before the storm, he bought ice for a woman who didn’t have the money, Gayle Sweet said.
Gayle Sweet’s brother, Joey Livings, 49, said Steve Sweet was the kind of man who would do all he could to help someone.
“He's done everything for everybody,” Livings said, resisting tears. He remembered the time his brother-in-law spent all day and night fixing Livings’ truck.
“I can get that for you, Joey,” he’d always say, Livings said. “There wasn’t a time you could not call him that he wouldn’t drop everything and come help you.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment