The worst is over.

That’s what most residents thought after Wednesday night’s torrential rains sent encroaching waves of flood waters lapping up their front lawn.

More than 5 inches of the wet stuff fell throughout St. Tammany, flooding many neighborhoods including Woodstone Drive in Mandeville.

Downed trees on powerlines were a common sight Wednesday night and Thursday morning, especially in the western half of St. Tammany Parish. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

But most breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they fared well as the storms dissipated and the floodwaters receded.

Most let their guard down.

“We were sitting in the family room playing with the baby at about 9 a.m. this morning,” said Chris Koch, of 221 Elmwood St. in Mandeville, while holding her grandchild.

Without notice, as they sat around the TV, a bang rocked the family and sent a massive pine tree careening into their house, severing a portion of their roof in two. Water poured in their hallway from the dismantled ceiling. Nerves frazzled, they frantically clung to each other in safety as they surveyed the damage.

Lightning also struck the tall pine tree in their back yard, sending it crashing down across the Koch’s house, resting on one of the trees in the front yard. Debris from the tree splattered across the front lawn, but no one was hurt and the insurance company was immediately contacted to start the repair process.

Folsom was no different. But again, residents there did not predict the storm’s severity.

Three locations outside the village limits were reportedly struck by unconfirmed tornadoes. A 100-yard swath of Louisiana 25 just south of Folsom was temporarily closed from fallen trees, the areas around the Merrywood and Chenel Farms subdivisions off Louisiana Highway 40 East had at least two houses sustain damage with multiple trees down, and the area off La. 40 West around Albert Thompson, North Willie and Robinson roads also received damage.

A common theme evolved: No one expected it.

Scott Quigley at 81054 La. 25 said he was feeding his sheep when out of nowhere a train headed for him.

“I heard trees snapping, so I ran back to the house and got in the hallway,” he said. He couldn’t confirm whether it was a tornado, but it left his large camper in ruins and punctured several holes in his roof from toppled trees.

Only several miles northeast of Quigley around 9 a.m., veterinarian Laura Freeman was participating in her morning exercise routine on Henri Street in Merrywood when she too heard the call of the wind. After peering into the ominous gray mass of debris whizzing outside her window, she and her trainer hurried to the hallway just in time to hear fragments of her carport’s roof begin peeling from its foundation.

“It lasted several minutes, but it sent pieces of my roof all over my yard and my neighbor’s yard,” Freeman said, pointing over the toppled fence toward her neighbor.

But Freeman fared much better than Christiane Mummelthey on the opposite end of the road at 100 Henri. Mummelthey huddled in her bathroom when she heard the approaching storm.

“Suddenly, it became extremely windy. I ran into the bathroom where I heard a tremendous crash,” she said.

She demonstrated how she smacked her hand against the wall when she realized her entire roof was peeled from her home in a matter of seconds. The metal structure was ripped from its foundation, mostly intact, and sent spiraling into trees beside her house where a large section of it still rests wrapped around one of the larger pine trees nearly 50 feet above the ground.

“We seem to be in the middle of it all because last year lightning hit my house twice in a three-week period,” Mummelthey said, throwing her fist up exasperated.

The storms also left a path of downed trees and power lines across much of the neighborhood, but village officials said there were no reports of injuries in Folsom.