Lala ripped roof off an Ocean View home ‘like a wave,’ homeowner says

HAWAII ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) – An Ocean View couple who rode out Hurricane Lala in their home captured the moment the storm ripped off their roof.

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Video captures the panic of Merwylle Branch and Joe Ashley.

“She’s inside when the roof lifts up and I’m walking up the stairs watching the roof go over like a wave, like a barrel and a surfer,” Ashley said. “There’s no words to express what it is.”

Not much was salvageable in their home after the rain flooded both the upstairs and downstairs with ankle-deep water.

“It was literally popping up and down, just like the house was breathing,” Ashley said.

When the roof gave way, they frantically fled to a friend’s house nearby.

“We’re freaking out and she’s grabbing everything. We’re trying to get the dog together and just make our way out of the house,” they recalled.

Shards of their roof pierced a neighbor’s home, but thankfully they were uninjured.

“When the roof came up and everything picked up all of a sudden, and everything dropped, and it was like a calm because it’s no longer sucking air through the house. It’s going over the walls and it was just eerie calm right after it happened,” he added.

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Despite their home being a near total loss, they’re grateful they weren’t badly hurt.

Joe also shared his concern for communities that were hit even harder.

“The people that died in Na’alehu, I mean the cemetery, just, there’s a lot worse off than us,” Ashley said.

Ashley also runs a coffee farm in upper Pahala. He went there Wednesday for the first time since the storm to inspect the damage, and is grateful his crops and loved ones survived.

“Every one of us walked out, even the dogs, without a scratch, and you know we’re grateful for that. I mean it could have been much worse,” he said.

They’re staying at a friend’s home in the meantime. He says rebuilding and dealing with insurance is already proving to be a strenuous process.

He’s already concerned for the next round of potential bad weather to roll through.

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A GoFundMe has been set up to help with repairs.