July 4 winds blow roof off Hallowing Point trailer

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by CAROL HARVAT The wind-damaged trailer in Hallowing Point Mobile Home Park with a piece of its roof that blew off on July 4. The trailer was home to Drew Jones, fiancee Karanaida Alban, their baby Logan and Alban’s mother Dee Alban. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Karanaida Alban and fiancee Drew Jones stand in the debris of their rented trailer at Hallowing Point Mobile Home Park. The trailer was hit by strong winds and hail on July 4.

The roof broke into three pieces and blew everywhere, with insulation and items like lamps landing 100 yards away, said Drew Jones, who was holding his 8-month-old son Logan when he heard the roar of the winds.

‘‘I was sitting on the couch when it started to hail,” Jones said. Jones said he then grabbed the baby in his arms and went into the kitchen away from the windows and bent down, covering up the baby.

‘‘The hail was so bad we were holding our ears,” said Karanaida Alban, Jones’ fiancee. Alban said that it felt like a matter of seconds as the winds roared, blowing off the roof and lifting the trailer off the foundation and then bouncing it back down about 2 feet off the foundation.

‘‘The roar was so loud it had to be a tornado,” Jones said.

It shook the whole place, and Alban said she then caught a wall as it fell into the trailer when the roof blew off.

‘‘Drew kept a cool head. It hit so quick, I was in such a shock. I just stared at it all. We’re all okay, just cuts and bruises. It’s an absolute miracle,” Alban said. Jones has cuts and bruises on his back from the cabinet doors and contents falling on him, she said.

Alban’s mother’s bedroom is completely detached from the trailer, Alban said, adding she was lucky that she wasn’t in her room.

‘‘The baby is fine, but everything is broken and wet,” she said. ‘‘All the dishes are broken, the food was blown around, it’s a mess.”

The family rented the trailer for $950 a month at the end of May, and Alban said they could not get insurance because the trailer was too old and too close to the water. It was all that Alban said they could find and afford and they needed a place when the baby arrived.

The trailer was condemned by the county building inspector who assessed the damage that night, she said.

‘‘Now we are sleeping on my grandmother’s floor in Clinton. We are seriously misplaced up here,” she said.

Mike Mona, who owns the trailer and trailer park, told Jones that they could move into another trailer at the park, Alban said.

‘‘I’m not going to move into another tin coffin,” she said. Even in a thunderstorm it would rattle, and there have been several storms lately, Alban said. The trailer had hurricane strapping around it, but it was not connected to anything, she said.

‘‘It’s so nice on the water, but when a storm hits it’s awful,” Alban added.

Both Jones and Alban said they have salvaged what they can from the trailer and have made an application for emergency assistance from the county. The Red Cross gave them a $500 credit card for emergency needs that night, she said, and neighbors provided them with blankets and coffee as they stood out in the rain for more than two hours while firefighters and county officials assessed the damage. Both Prince Frederick and Benedict volunteer fire departments responded to the scene and secured the area.

Jones and Alban are both volunteer EMTs at Accokeek Station 24 in Prince George’s County, and Jones is also a firefighter there. A couple of officers from the station showed up to help and brought food and drinks and offered them a place to stay, Alban said. They heard about the trailer on the scanner and thought it might have been Jones and Alban.

Everyone has been so helpful, and ‘‘we’re so thankful to all of them,” she said.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration reported hail and winds in the area on July 4, but no tornadoes were recorded on its Web site.

In a separate incident, St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department responded to a tree though the roof of a home on South Shore Drive in the evening of July 4, said Chief Monty Parks. They covered furniture that was getting wet from the rain and the break in the roof, he said, and no injuries were reported.