Lacey declares state of emergency after storm

LACEY, Wash. — Remarkably, Lorrie and Harmon Eaton can see a silver lining.

"Hey, we're alive, we're healthy," Lorrie said. "And the house inside is OK."

A tree that came through their carport roof largely spared the house they have lived in on Shady Lane Road since 1983.

"We have a few little holes," Lorri said, talking about their house.  "A little bit of leakage. But not much. Not much."

And that's saying something given what is right above their motor home.

"Considering the size of this tree," Harmon said, walking into the carport. "It stopped about this far from the roof. So we're actually very lucky in a lot of ways."

Still the damage is extensive.  The tree also fell into the roof of the garage where the gas line was.

"That line was broken and my neighbor smelled it next door," Harmon said. "And he realized that it must be mine so he came over and went to the meter and turned it off for me."

All the more amazing because that homeowner ended up with a couple of trees in his roof.  Another neighbor watched it all from his living room.

"If they had been in the bedroom," Steve Boruchowitz said,  "they would have been dead. Because the tree went all the way through the first floor."

We heard similar stories all over southeast Lacey. So much damage, the city has declared a state of  emergency.

"We've never seen anything like this before that hit our community," said city manager Scott Spence, who was attending Lacey's annual "Fun Fair."

He says the city will need weeks to clean up.

"There are a lot of sidewalk panels that have been lifted up," Spence said. "We have over 75 street trees that have been knocked over. So we are going to have a bit of a time cleaning up."

That state of emergency means there could be state and or federal aid for homeowners and businesses hit hard by the storm.

Cox Media Group