FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A Fort Pierce family is seeking answers after enduring five months of uncertainty following the Oct. 9 tornado outbreak.
Brittani and Matthew Littlejohn were directly hit by the EF-3 tornado that killed six people in the Spanish Lakes Country Club community.
"We basically heard what sounded literally like a rolling, roaring freight train," Brittani Littlejohn said. "It sounded like when you're in a car wash, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom."
Though the family was unharmed, their home suffered extensive damage— the tornado shattered their hurricane-proof windows, wooden beams impaled their bedroom wall, and their screened-in back porch is nowhere to be found.
The worst damage came to their roof, which left the house exposed to rain and mold.
“It was just complete devastation,” Littlejohn explained. "And since then, rain has continued to pour in here, which makes all of this collapse still. So we still have buckets catching water every time it rains, and we're just at a standstill. We don't know what to do. We don't know if we can even start fixing our house."
WATCH: WPTV Investigative Reporter Kate Hussey speaks with the Littlejohns on their struggles to get a sufficient payout for their home
The Littlejohns filed a claim with Slide Insurance, a Tampa-based company that took over their policy during the state-run Citizen's Insurance depopulation initiative. Now, they are being left disappointed with the experience.
“I didn’t shop for Slide, they came to me,” Matthew Littlejohn said. “They just kind of left us high and dry.”
In November, the couple received an initial estimate from the adjuster employed by Slide, which noted damage across various parts of the home. They were issued a payment letter of just over $167,000.
“Nothing was enough to fix what we have going on," Brittani Littlejohn said.
To get a clearer picture of the destruction, the Littlejohns hired a private engineer who identified additional issues. Photos in the private engineer's report noted cracks in ceilings, walls and areas where the ceiling separated from the wall below it.
"The engineer said the entire house looks like it shifted one way," Littlejohn said.
The engineers report calculated more than $473,000 worth of damage, almost three times the amount initially offered by Slide.
After submitting the engineer's report to Slide in December, the family faced a frustrating wait for updates. Emails they shared with WPTV show they received no communication for two months, even though they and a public adjuster they hired reached out multiple times.
"Meanwhile I’m due in 10 weeks with another baby, where am I going to put this baby?" Littlejohn said. "We don’t have our house, it continues to smell and mold in here. We have no choice, unfortunately."
WPTV Investigative Reporter Kate Hussey reached out to Slide for comment via email but didn't receive a response and was put on hold over the phone for an hour before being directed back to email.
"It’s just really hard, you know you have two young kids, we have another baby coming and it’s hard," Littlejohn said. "And the fact that the money we have been using to pay rent somewhere else while we continue to pay on a mortgage for a place to continue to collapse and mold, it’s running out because they’re taking too long."
Littlejohn then drove three hours to visit Slide’s headquarters in Tampa, where she was again directed back to email communication. Slide had still not responded to WPTV's inquiries.
Just days later, the Littlejohns received an updated payment letter from Slide, adding $200,000 to their payout. It still isn't enough to cover all repair costs, but the family is relieved to have some financial support to begin the rebuilding process.
“We can get started now and not just sit and wait,” Brittani said. “We have like three months left of rent.”
As the water continues to drip, and the path to patching it still feels so far away, the Littlejohn's have to wonder how many others still sit waiting with no help, nor no end anywhere in sight.
“It’s a waiting game,” Brittani stated.
