One Year Later: St. Michael Family Has Rebuilt, Still Recovering

from an early spring thunderstorm down on western St. Michael, the lone family home that suffered major damage looks as good as new–on the outside. 

Things are "pretty good" on the inside of the Steinbach residence in the 9500 block of 42nd Street in St. Michael, according to Teresa, the family's mother, who became the .

"Our girls get a little tense when the weather alerts start coming in the spring and summer now," she said.

"Our youngest lives in the crawl space," added Dan, the patriarch of the family. "She can't wait for winter."

The for the 2011 season, and it was a big one for St. Michael. The system dropped at least two spotted tornadoes, including the one that lifted the roof off the Steinbachs' garage and deposited it in a pond west of the home.

There were neighbors, Teresa said, who saw the moment of impact.

"They couldn't believe it was only the garage," she said. "They told us there was so much debris flying they thought the entire house would be gone. One of our neighbors told us she'd never been so scared to see anything in her life. She thought her home was next."

The ensuing 12 months have had their ups and downs. There were the emotions to sort out, and the business side of things. Fortunately, the family's insurance company was great to work with. And, they found an ally in a neighbor two blocks away.

"We worked with Matt [Olson, owner of Hillcrest Remodeling], really, because he was there for us at the right time," Teresa said.

"We'd been through a storm before and knew what to expect," Dan added. "We were ready for the kind of swarm of contractors to come in and make their pitches. Matt was a guy we knew from a couple different places and he helped us along the way."

Teresa said Matt was on scene when the insurance adjuster came, per her request. She hadn't really planned on hiring a contractor yet, but seeing Olson work with the adjustor as they surveyed the damage made up her mind.

"Before we knew it, we had an agreement," she said.

The work was extensive. The garage was in shambles. The house had damage because the tornado had literally tried to pull off the entire roof, creating a lot of stress damage between walls and ceiling. There was patching, painting and a big window replacement done on the house. And the garage was re-roofed and sheetrocked.

"We were displaced about a month," Teresa said. "The insurance people thought for sure it would take two."

The family stayed with the Hansons–Troy and Kathy–who live down the road. Kathy, a dean of students at , tried to keep life "normal" for the two girls.

"They were incredible. They knew how important it was to me to keep us all together, and that included our pets," Teresa said.

Friends and neighbors came out of the woodwork, offering up meals and even accomodations.

"We had four or five families offer a place," Dan said. "And people came up with ideas we didn't think of, like freezer space and storage for our garage stuff."

Two weeks later, heavy storms came through again, this time decimating the suburbs of St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Fridley and the city of Minneapolis. Complete homes were leveled.

"We kind of sat there and watched on TV," Dan said. "We couldn't believe it. But then, we turned to our girls, and said we were lucky. We didn't have to start over. Some of those people lost everything. But in the end, it's just ... 'stuff.'"

Today, Thursday, May 10, will not produce any tornadoes. It's slated to be balmy, with maybe a chance of rain.

"There will be more storms," Teresa said. "We just kind of keep in tune with it now. And the girls still get tense. I think that will go away, but it's going to take a while. They're still kind of recovering."