Cliff and Patty Karthauser remember it like it was two weeks ago, not two years. A tornado roared through their pristine setting along the Indian Creek Golf Course. Their home was right in its path. They both remember that the sound was incredibly loud.
The Karthausers took shelter in their basement storm shelter on that Sunday in 2014, which happened to be Mother's Day. When they emerged, the damage was unimaginable. Cliff Karthauser said, " It took the roof, started momentum of the deck and it came right off, tore out the kitchen, the dining area. " In addition, chandeliers were broken. There was a gaping hole above. Heavy rain and water were pouring into their house. Karthauser added, " We were in a state of shock. "
The Karthausers began picking up the pieces of their lives by getting valuables out, including photo and wedding albums, pictures of the grandkids, as well as important papers. Patty Karthauser told me, "We took everything to three storage units and spent a lot of time deciding what could be salvaged, what could be cleaned, what had to go. "
They stayed at a hotel, then with their daughter, later an apartment. Prior to the tornado, the Karthausers had already purchased a plot of land and had planned to build there. But the kindness of neighbors who brought them food, comfort and anything they needed in the weeks that followed, convinced them to stay. They proudly took me on a tour of what is now their new look home. A new deck faces south instead of west. Steel reinforced beams make this house safer. There's a formal living room and kitchen.
It's a far cry from May of 2014 when a tornado rocked their house, their dwelling, their comfort zone but not their spirit.
