Forbes Creek couple look to rebuild dream home one year after freak 'mini tornado'
Updated
On a windy night late last January, Jan and Geoff McKergow's dream home was torn to rubble.
Their house, at Forbes Creek just east of the ACT, was one of three destroyed by a freak storm event described as a mini tornado.
Visiting the site 12 months later, the couple described the experience as bewildering.
"We were asleep and I was conscious of rain coming in," Mrs McKergow said.
"There were a couple of flashes of lightning and I realised there was nothing overhead anymore," Mr McKergow added.
The walls of the bedroom collapsed around them, bricks flying to each side of the bed as the couple raced to another wing of the house.
"Down a hallway full of rubble, broken glass and other fallen objects, we managed to get out without stubbing so much as our bare feet," Mr McKergow said.
Sheltering in an area of the house left relatively untouched, the couple emerged hours later stunned by the support of friends and neighbours.
"We have a little study, and I have a lifetime's accumulation of books, and I thought, well, they're gone," Mr McKergow said.
"The first thing [volunteers] tackled were passing the books through broken windows."
The path to rebuild
It has been a long road since for the McKergows, with four insurance assessments and a lengthy wait for demolition.
The couple are renting up the road in Bungendore while they navigate the clean-up.
"We were finally able to sign the contract with the builder [last week]," Mr McKergow said.
"We hope to start building at the very end of the month."
Among the emotion and difficulty, friends and family wondered whether the couple would want to rebuild at all.
But for them, it was no question.
"Good neighbours, terrific community," Mrs McKergow said.
"When you live in the centre of paradise, why move?"
Topics: storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, bungendore-2621, nsw, canberra-2600, act, australia
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