Somerville Home Now Leaning Sideways After Powerful Storm
SOMERVILLE (CBS) - A house in Somerville will have to be torn down after Monday's storm left it leaning sideways.
The home on Oak Street was being renovated before the strong winds shifted it precariously close to the house next door. The family that lives there had to leave as a precaution.
"It was a pretty crazy night," said Dylan O'Sullivan, who lives next door. He was cooking dinner with his girlfriend when the wind started howling. They went outside to secure the grill and realized the house next door was moving.
"With each gust of wind you could see the wall move a few feet," O'Sullivan told WBZ-TV Tuesday. "As you can see it's visibly tilting toward our house."
They called the fire department and gathered up some belongings.
"They showed up and wound up shutting off our gas and electricity in case the lines came down," said O'Sullivan. "It was definitely nerve-wracking. We grabbed some stuff and put it in the car and got our car out."
Neighbors have been walking up to the house all morning to see what happened.
"I was shocked," said one of the neighbors.
"Wow. It's lucky it didn't come down. It looks pretty precarious right now," said John McLaughlin, who lives on the street.
Because the house is in danger of collapsing, police have closed off the street for the time being.
No one was hurt in the storm, which knocked out power to more than 48,000 customers in Massachusetts Monday evening.
"The storm is gone so I'm not too nervous, but taking the house down is going to be quite a challenge," said O'Sullivan.