FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Frankfort man says he cannot even walk through his front door after storms Monday night sent a tree branch crashing into his home.
"It doesn't seem real," Woolums said.
Weslee Woolums says everything he owns is inside the house, and he is now starting from scratch. When the tree fell, his first responder instincts kicked in, and he grabbed his aunt and rushed her to safety.
"If that tree would have been four feet closer in any direction, it would have landed on my aunt or would have landed on me," Woolums said.
The experience has been emotionally overwhelming for Woolums, with damage so severe that his aunt has had to call in an engineer to assess whether the structure is safe to rebuild or will need to be torn down.
The destruction is also bringing back a painful memory. Woolums says his aunt's house burned down Christmas morning in 2010.
"When this happened Monday night, she just lost it broke down right there in the middle floor," Woolums said.
Woolums and his aunt are currently staying in a hotel, with hopes of moving into a long-term rental. However, he says furnishing a new place is not a realistic option right now.
"There's a lot of expenses that we just can't afford and insurance is never in a rush, never in a hurry to give you any type of reimbursement," Woolums said.
As recovery efforts get underway, Woolums says he is trying to focus on what he has rather than what he has lost.
"At the end of the day houses can be replaced family members can't," Woolums said.
If community members want to donate to his GoFundMe, click here.
