El Paso County couple returns after storm to find rubble where home had been
Jeffrey and Gabby Whitehead moved to eastern El Paso County nine months ago with dreams of starting a ranch.
They were remodeling their 56-foot mobile home with new appliances and flooring. It would be where they raised their two children, and a third on the way, a daughter due July 4.
They never even got to use their new stove.
With a blizzard approaching, the Whiteheads left for a doctor’s appointment Wednesday.
“She’s pregnant, so we were getting her checked out and couldn’t make it back home because of the storm,” Whitehead said Friday.
A neighbor intercepted them before they could reach their property on Edison Road south of Shear Road. He wanted to know if the Whiteheads knew what awaited them.
Their home was gone, a pile of rubble in its place.
They were stunned.
“I don’t know how it blew so far away,” Jeffrey Whitehead said. “The weight of the frame alone is about 4,000 pounds, and it threw it that far.”
They live with their 9-year-old daughter, 17-year-old son and four dogs. They have two recreational vehicles on their property, both of which were undamaged.
“The crazy thing is those (RVs) don’t weigh anything, and they didn’t move at all, and this thing was tied down,” he said. “The straps, they just ripped out and (got) tore out.”
Their son lives in one of the RVs. Before leaving for the doctor’s appointment, the Whiteheads put their dogs in the other RV to protect them from the snow and hurricane-force winds that were expected.
Their home wasn’t insured, because it still needed to be inspected, Jeffrey Whitehead said. They had an inspection set for a week after the storm hit.
“Insurance isn’t going to help us at all with this because we had to have it inspected before we could move in, and they won’t insure you until it’s been inspected,” he said.
There’s a lot they have to figure out.
“It took out our spigot for the water, so I don’t know if I even have water,” he said.
In the meantime, they’ve been staying with family in the area.
The Whiteheads’ neighbors, Carla and Eddie Anderson, started a GoFundMe for the family. “Our good friends just bought their home and lost everything in the blizzard of 2019,” the appeal says. The fundraising page, which had raised more than $900 Friday evening, can be found at gofundme.com/blizzard-of-2019-took-their-home.
Northern and eastern El Paso County felt the full fury of the storm, which moved into the region about midday Wednesday with winds of nearly 100 mph and blowing snow that reduced visibility to inches. Schools were closed for days, along with major highways, including Interstate 25. Hundreds of travelers were trapped on the interstate awaiting its reopening, and thousands of residents were left in the dark by power outages.
Some Mountain View Electric Association customers were still without power Friday.
Power was expected to be restored in Black Forest by the end of Friday. Crews repaired outages in Monument and Ellicott on Thursday and were working to replace 36 downed poles and power lines in Yoder. The company hoped to have power back by Saturday.
More than 52,000 Colorado Springs Utilities customers were without power Wednesday or Thursday. By Friday morning, only 169 people did not have service, Utilities said in a tweet.
The Gazette’s Liz Forster contributed to this report.
Jeffrey Whitehead looks at the remains of his 56-foot mobile home Friday in Yoder. The home was destroyed by the bomb cyclone that wreaked havoc on the region this week.
Abandoned cars remain on the side of Colorado 94 east of Colorado Springs two days after the bomb cyclone battered the Front Range and eastern plains with high winds, snow, low visibility and icy roads.
Snow drifts sit against the side of a house at Colorado 94 and Yoder Road on Friday in Yoder.