It took two months for Emma Stroud and her husband, Rahtu, to get a roof back on their Academy neighborhood home. Even getting a tarp proved difficult during the weeks that followed the May 16 tornado.

The high winds of the EF3 twister tore off a portion of the roof of their 120-year-old home, leaving a massive hole in its flat area and throwing the rest into the nearby yard.

Rainwater drenched their keepsakes and walls over those two months as the couple argued with their homeowners insurance provider, State Farm, over the cost and type of roof the company proposed putting on the house.

It wasn’t long before the water reached the first floor, where they host small community music performances most weekends, damaging a galaxy mural painted on the main floor’s ceiling.

The couple had

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