SHEPHERD — Monday's wind and hail storm wreaked havoc in in the community of Shepherd, flipping one family's trailer home upside down.
The building blew nearly 20 feet from its foundation, landing on top of one of their vehicles and crushing it, along with destroying nearly everything inside.
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On Tuesday morning, Jorden and Joe Dalton were rummaging through the scraps of their overturned home, looking to save what they could.
Joe was working his construction job in Big Sky while the storm was happening, and Jorden was in the home with their young daughter witnessing the destruction firsthand.
"God, it happened so quick," Jorden said. "I didn't really know what was going to happen."
Jorden said that dark clouds and extremely strong winds hit her area quickly. In an instant, she and her daughter fled their home for her grandmother's located on the same property around 250 yards away.
"The wind started to come up real bad, so we rushed down to my grandma's house," Jorden said. "I was scared. My daughter was with me and the last thing I want is for anything to happen to my little girl."
Jorden said that within two minutes of them safely making it inside her grandmother's house, she watched her house be ripped off its foundation and rolled upside down about 20 feet away.
"It's been stormy out here but never that bad," Jorden, who grew up in Shepherd, said. "It's never been able to just blow houses over."
For the Daltons, the loss comes at the worst possible time, as the home was nearing completion after more than two years of construction. The couple didn't have insurance because more work was needed inside.
"I put my heart and soul into this house," Joe said with tears in his eyes. "Every penny we've had for the last three years. We went so much into debt just to get this house livable and now it's just all gone."
Joe said it hurt when he returned to see the damage, and it was even more crushing digging through the destruction on Tuesday.
"It's like opening a fresh wound," Joe said. "Every time you see something that you cherished completely demolished, it's like ripping off the scab all over again."
The Daltons are like many other Shepherd residents now working to make repairs following Monday's storm.
"Everybody lost stuff," Jorden said. "Everybody's homes got damaged."
And that's why it's challenging for the family to ask for help, even though they are in desperate need.
"It's hard to ask for help in a situation like this because everyone is going through something," Jorden said.
A GoFundMe was created for the family by one of their cousins, in hopes of helping them get back on their feet.
