hyhAmericus, Ga- When Aldeen Smith and his wife went to bed on Tuesday night, their Americus home was in stable condition and his 83-year-old bed-ridden mother-in-law was resting comfortably in her bedroom. That all changed the next day once Hurricane Michael made landfall causing significant wind and rain in Americus and major damage to the Smith home. But that’s only where the story begins. 

“We heard a light start flashing and we heard like a big boom!” 

That’s how Dorothy Crenshaw-Perkins describes what she heard as a tree fell on the roof of her neighbor’s home, which caved directly onto the woman’s bedroom leaving her trapped inside at the mercy of her son-in-law for rescue. 

“This is the window that my mother-in-law came out of right here,” says Aldeen Smith. “And the guys in the house and the guys out here, and we lifted her to about right long in there where I had the van at.” 

“I was just hoping that she was gonna be alright because her room is right there in the front,” says Crenshaw-Perkins. 

With his mother-in-law out of harm’s way after being pulled to safety, Smith turned his attention to the structural damage of his home. 

“I had just remodeled all of this right here and the floor. And then it just came in and took all of that…they can’t go out the front door cause the trees out there,” says Smith. “That’s where that window was at. And it just took all of that out all the way around.” 

While the house can be rebuilt, the Smith family and their neighbors all agree that “God is in control.”