GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Friday 21 May is a day that will be imprinted in the memory of Jors Noko for the rest of his life. That's the day he was hit by a double whammy no-one, not even him, could forsee.
Jors stopped his car in Somerset Street to pick up a friend who needed a lift back home. As he stopped he heard a loud bang and initially thought it was his lift knocking on the car's roof to grab his attention.
"The next moment the tar road turned green while I was looking through my windscreen. Dazed and confused I tried to turn around when I realised something horribly went wrong.
"My lift was holding her head so I tried to open the back door for her. That's when is struck me that the loud bang on the roof was in fact the tree trunk of a huge pine tree that was knocked over by die strong wind. Had I stopped a second later I probably would not have been alive.
"Corrie van Zyl of Graaff-Reinet Advertiser and a few bystanders managed to free me from my damaged car. I was taken by ambulance to the Midlands Hospital, treated for, miraculously, minor injuries and discharged after about two hours."
But, says Jors, when I got home I was greeted with a strange, but sorry sight, when I saw my house minus its roof.
"While I was undergoing treatment at the hospital the wind caused havoc by ripping off the roof from my house. A few walls was also knocked down by the howling wind but luckily no-one of my family was injured.
"They and some neighbors stood outside, overawed by the damage. Parts of my kitchen and lounge were still intact but the walls of the rest of my house were destroyed.
"We're now staying over in a small church hall in Tjokville. At the moment my world is turned upside down but I'm just thankful that we're all still alive. It could have been much worse. We're blessed."
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