Today there's a huge hole where a wall should be on Chester Morben's Sioux Falls home.

He says he was home watching TV just before nine last night. Morben says, "We heard this loud crash and the breaking of glass and we rushed out to see what it was."

A car crashed into the side of his home.

"I said, 'Darn, you know, they've finally hit the house,'" said Mobren.

Police say 51-year-old Tom McFarlane had been driving drunk. Officer Hector Soto said, "He did tell me that he may have dosed off and just couldn't make the turn and ended up hitting the house."

Officers arrested McFarlane for driving while intoxicated and he's currently lodged in Minnehaha County Jail for that charge.

Mobren told KSFY he's had several close calls with people driving drunk just in the past year. He said, "They've managed to hit my mailbox about three times and they've hit a street light."

Seeing a car smashed into his house was bad, but smelling gas made things worse. The car hit his home's gas line. He recalled his reaction, "We said, 'Oh, we've got to get out of here.'"

So, he and his wife went to the neighbors and both homes were evacuated. A gas company and the Sioux Falls Fire Department spent the night fixing the line. Morben and his wife spent the night with family living in Sioux Falls. He says the incident could have been worse, but is sad this could have been prevented with a little common sense. Mobren said, "They'v gotta [SIC] slow down or somebody's actually going to get hurt here."

Kent Erdahl contributed to this report.

Drew Sandholm can always be reached by  phone at (605) 373-7372 or by e-mail.