ROCKY MOUNT, Mo. — Floodwaters last week wreaked havoc on local homes and businesses, and left one woman trapped under the collapsed roof of her home.
Rocky Mount Fire Protection District Firefighters were dispatched to an emergency call on Friday, July 3 to just off Lake View Drive in Rocky Mount.
According to RMFPD Acting Fire Chief Kevin Hurtubise, neighbors responded to a cry for help from a woman whom they heard screaming, “Call 911!”
When firefighters arrived on the scene, they found a woman buried under her own home. A large amount of dirt had collapsed the north side of her home and roof. “We could not get to her, so we had to make a forced entry,” Chief Hurtubise said. Firefighters dug around the foundation with shovels to get the dirt off the buried woman, and then they utilized a high-lift jack to raise the roof off of her, one section at a time. Once the roof was raised enough, firefighters were able to slide her out from under the dirt and roof.
House Collapses Under Weight Of Recent Storms [PHOTOS]
The woman was taken by Mid Mo Ambulance to the hospital with minor injuries, including a wound to her left leg.
Chief Hurtubise attributes the roof collapse to flooding and poor construction design. “They used wood to build the walls and then buried it as an earth contact home. With the weight of the rain magnifying the weight of the dirt, accompanied with the age of the home, the house itself failed,” Chief Hurtubise said.
The woman lived alone, and the chief noted, “She was lucky it wasn’t worse.”
The home is a complete loss. The woman went to stay with her daughter in Columbia after being released from the hospital.
RMFPD responded with three apparatus and six firefighters. They were assisted by Mid Mo Ambulance and two Morgan County Sheriff Deputies. Assistance from Lake Ozark Fire Protection District was cancelled en route.
