Jim

Helman was working in his office at PC Haven in

Fayetteville Tuesday night when the roof fell in

on him. Literally.

tornado ripped through Fayetteville shortly

before 8 p.m. and damaged the computer store as

well as the Fayetteville Pharmacy next door, at

the intersection of Ga. Highway 85 and E. Georgia

Avenue.

The

hardest hit of all was not either of the store

owners, but Robyn Miller, an elementary school

teacher who was in her car on the highway when

the roof came flying off.

The

large piece of roof hit the aforementioned power

pole and split into three pieces, one of which

landed on her 1998 Honda Accord as she was

driving it. She was facing north, waiting to turn

right and go to the post office.

"The

rain started immediately - just sheets of

it," she said. "The car in front of me

stopped, I looked up and just saw the roof coming

at me."

two-by-four came through her sun roof and another

piece of wood smashed her back windshield. Her

front windshield was broken by the roof of the

building.

The

power lines came down on her car, and she was

stuck inside, with rain pouring down on her

through the broken windows. A piece of plywood

rested on the driver's side window, which

fortunately kept anything larger from coming

through there and hurting her.

Miller

called her husband on her cell phone, and he

called 911. Emergency personnel arrived on the

scene quickly, she said, but they instructed her

to remain in the car while they removed the power

lines.

Jessica

Ables, a recent graduate of Fayette County High

School, also called 911 after seeing Miller's

situation. She and two friends were driving to a

movie when they pulled off the highway at E.

Georgia Avenue because of the rain. "You

couldn't see the car in front of you," she

said.

One

of Ables' friends, who had recently moved here

from Minnesota, sat dumbfounded in the back seat

because she had never seen weather of this

nature, Jessica said. The girls waited a little

while for emergency help to arrive, then had to

wait for Georgia Power crews to come and move

some of the power lines before it was safe for

them to move their car again.

Miller

spent a total of about 45 minutes soaking in her

car before she was rescued. Her husband tried to

drive to her aid, but he was stopped on Hwy. 85

just south of the scene by a tree that had fallen

onto the highway in front of Dunkin Donuts. He

got out of his car and ran the rest of the way,

she said.

Her

car does not have a single panel that has not

been dented or damaged in some way, she said, but

she miraculously escaped with only a small

scratch on her hand - and the guaranteed

best "How I spent my summer vacation"

story the students and faculty at Peeples

Elementary School will hear this fall.

Pharmacy

owners Ron and Pam Pendergraft were working under

makeshift lights Wednesday afternoon, as they

were without electrical power or telephone

service. PC Haven owner Helman, whose power comes

from the opposite side of the building, allowed

the Pendergrafts to hook up to his store.

Helman

said damage on his side was negligible, due

mostly to water leaking in after the storm hit

and took off a good-sized portion of the

building's roof. He reopened for business around

noon Thursday.

The

pharmacy may take a few days longer. Pam

Pendergraft said that she and her husband came

back to their store just after the storm, thanks

to a call from Helman. Both businesses close at 7

p.m. weekdays, so there were no customers around

and no one was hurt.

The

pharmacy's insurance company was to take

inventory late this week and determine how much

of a loss has been sustained.

Power

was out because of a pole just outside the

building that was hit by the roof when it came

off. That pole was replaced Thursday morning, but

another accident almost occurred, according to

Ron Pendergraft, when workers were stringing the

power lines back across Hwy. 85 and an 18-wheeler

came up the road, grabbing a portion of the

unattached line

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