DAVE Taylor says he sometimes enjoys sleeping under the stars - he just didn't expect it to happen on Sunday night.
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Mr Taylor was awoken by what he thought was a picture falling off the wall in the early hours of Monday morning.
Dazed and groggy, he looked up, and through the exhaust fan above his bed, could see the moon.
"I thought, "What the heck is going on here?"' Mr Taylor said.
"I felt the bed around me, and it felt like I had crumbs all through my bed. I got up, shined a torch on it, and it was all insulation, plaster, and rubble.
"I went out to see how bad the damage was, and I realised my roof was completely gone.
"I couldn't believe it."
A freak weather event - that officials say could have been a tornado - moved the roof from Mr Taylor's Frederick Street house into his backyard.
Mr Taylor's front veranda also collapsed, windows were broken, and half of his brick chimney was strewn 30 metres away, all in a matter of minutes.
"It stripped everything," Mr Taylor said.
"That's the bit I'm peeved about; I spent 16 years renovating, putting love and money into this place, and in half an hour, she's all gone. It's a bit upsetting.
"We knew we were going to have wind and rain last night, but nothing like this."
Mr Taylor however said there were silver linings to take from the wild night.
While the roof of his shed was also torn off, his priceless classic car inside somehow remained untouched.
Mr Taylor, too, along with everyone else caught near the unforeseen storm, avoided serious injury.
"It's upsetting ... but I'm still here. I'm not injured," he said.
"It's just the house."
Mr Taylor was one of many in north Horsham to be severely affected.
The roof of his shed was lifted and transported into neighbour Spike Smith's yard on Wawunna Road.
Mr Smith said he was awoken by what he thought was a car crash.
"I thought someone had crashed into our neighbour's caravan out the front," he said.
"We came outside and we could see sheets of iron flying through the air.
"But within about three minutes, it had all died down."
Mr Smith also had a hole in his roof, likely caused by flying debris.
He said he was incredibly lucky to avoid serious damage to his home.
"The roof in our backyard has bounced off our shed, and how it's missed everything else has got me buggered," he said.
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Richard Crabtree
richard.crabtree@austcommunitymedia.com.au
richard.crabtree@austcommunitymedia.com.au
