Pool star Jayson Shaw and family cheat death as horror storm battered house and caused living room ceiling to collapse
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JAYSON SHAW is living in a hotel in the United States after a storm damaged his seven-bedroom home – and almost caused a family tragedy.
Scotland's greatest nineball pool player is in Atlantic City this week for the $500,000 US Open, one of the key events on the calendar.
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Jayson Shaw is Scotland's greatest nineball pool player
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Yet back home in Connecticut, the Mosconi Cup-winning skipper and his family are dealing with the aftermath of severe weather during the July 4 weekend celebrations.
Shaw – a father of two children aged six and 10 – lives with his American wife and his in-laws, who were thankfully not at home when their living room ceiling COLLASPED due to a build-up of water.
Not only was their part of the mansion ruined but Shaw's prized pool table, which was used in the Mosconi Cup, and professional equipment have all been damaged, too.
The Glaswegian, nicknamed Eagle Eye, explained: 'On July 4, there was a mini cyclone. Four trees fell down in my back garden.
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'They wiped out my chicken house – killed all my chickens. Knocked down a big gazebo in the garden which we had built for barbecues.
'We got lucky that it never hit the house. Then the next morning I got up, I was outside and my wife said: 'What was that loud bang in the house?'
'When I went into my living room, I found the ceiling was on the floor! I'm guessing with all the trees that had fallen down, on the roof were big pieces of debris.
'That had ripped up like 20 tiles off the roof. So all the water had gone into the attic, went into the insulation in the house and it had soaked in.
'I guess it just sagged down into the ceiling and early in the morning, it finally fell down. There was water dripping everywhere.
'I went downstairs and it was all over my pool table. All over all my cues. Everything was just on the floor. Everything was ruined.
'My mother-in-law and father-in-law had gone away for the weekend. But usually they would have been at home.
'They could have been in the living room at the time because that's where their space is.
'I'm kind of lucky that they weren't there because being in their 70s, who knows what could have happened. Luckily nobody was injured.'
Shaw – who plays on Thursday in the Last 64 stage of the US Open – has spent the past six weeks dealing with insurance companies and arranging food and drink orders for the pool bar and restaurant that his family runs.
'A NIGHTMARE SITUATION'
Everyone has decamped to a nearby hotel while the house is being fixed and the residual water is 'sucked out' by heavy-duty machines.
Shaw added: 'It's a nightmare situation. I've got so much stuff that's completely ruined and we're going to have to completely renovate the full house.
'So, that's why we have to move out for three months.
'I'm kind of mad in a way and then kind of happy, too, that my kids are not injured or anybody is involved.
'But I'm lucky. I got a lot of good friends that have helped and obviously the family are pushing me to go to pool events.
'They are saying, this is a big opportunity and this is what you do for a living.
'So, go and try your hardest and if it doesn't happen then you know you can't really say it's your fault. It's out of your hands.
'So, I'm just playing free and will see what happens. I feel good on the table.
'I've got a lot of stuff on my mind. I'm just going to play my best and try my heart out and hopefully whatever's happened can spur me on to go deep in the tournament.'
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