With barely five minutes’ warning, Branford’s five-member Booth family and two friends lived through a terrifying moment, as the tornado-fueled Aug. 27 storm crashed a tree through the roof of the Booths’ home, destroying it while they were inside.

Jocelyn Booth is also known to many in North Branford, where she serves the school district as a special education teacher. Now, friends, family and many others are hoping to help by her family, by supporting an online fundraiser set up by Booth’s sister, Erin Brennan.

Booth said the storm hit her family’s home in Pine Orchard with horrific power and speed while she was at home with her husband, Jason, their children Grace, 14, Ryan, 12 and Addison, 10, as well as a family friend and her daughter. At about 4 p.m., the state’s emergency alert system sounded on cell phones, issuing a tornado warning for the area.

“All of our phones started blaring, and we lost power immediately. So we were trying to track it on our phones with our data, and we couldn’t get a signal, and then it happened,” said Booth. “It was pretty terrifying. It literally came out of nowhere. One minute, it was completely fine, and the next minute, our house fell down. And it happened to us at the very beginning of the storm, so then we had to try to find another place in our house to hide.”

Making matters even more terrifying, “we couldn’t find our son for a few minutes,” said Booth. “He was under the roof when it caved in. He actually got hit in the head with some sheet rock, and then scooted out of the room. But we didn’t know, so we were searching for him through the rubble.”

Since Aug. 27, the Booth family have been staying with friends. Next week, thanks to assistance from another friend, they will move into an academic rental in Branford, where Booth expects the family will be living for at least the next nine months.

“We were lucky to find one. There aren’t many right now in Branford,” said Booth.

She adds her family is simply grateful to be safe and together after their harrowing experience.

“Every night, I’m back to when they were babies, going to the one room they’re all sleeping in right now and checking them before we go to bed,” said Booth. “My mom said we could have been planning funerals right now.”

As for their rambling, red shingle home where the Booths and their pup recently gathered outside for a “porch portrait” during the COVID-19 spring quarantine, they’re waiting to hear from their insurance company about whether the structure will need to be knocked down or can be repaired and rebuilt. The older home was once a hunting cabin that had been converted into a house with several additions over the years, said Booth. The family moved in four years ago and had since cleared numerous trees from their property.

“We’ve taken down 25 trees in those four years—just not the right one, apparently,” said Booth. “We always thought that our house wasn’t so strong, but I think we realized, at the end of the day, it’s what saved us.”

As a family that loves to pitch in and help others, finding themselves on the receiving end of a benefit such as the online fundraising effort is “ heartwarming and embarrassing at the same time,” said Booth. “You don’t want to ever think you need to rely on other people, and I hope that we don’t have to. I hope, at the end of the day, we can take this money and donate to some fabulous charity or another family that needs it because we won’t need it. But we just don’t know.”

“My sister’s been crying every time she sees a donation,” Brennan said. “It’s been very overwhelming. People are extremely generous and very kind.”

As of press time for this article, the GoFundMe “Rebuild the Booths” fundraising page had raised over $12,000 to assist the Booth family.

“I see the donor names [of] friends of our parents, out-of-state family; I see huge donations from people who have been in our lives forever, and you don’t even know how to thank them,” said Booth. “We are so grateful for the support of the Branford and North Branford community. It’s been overwhelming. People are very generous.”

The Booth family fundraiser appears online at www.gofundme.com, search “Rebuild the Booths.”