Carolyn and William Barnes had just returned to their Silver City mobile home Friday evening when they heard the tornado siren start. Figuring they would be okay to stay at home, they turned on the TV to check the weather, but then Carolyn’s brother called saying they had five minutes to get somewhere safer.
They ran to her mother-in-law's house on the same street. Carolyn said they could feel the tornado the moment they stepped inside, so they helped get her mother-in-law into the bathroom, and she and William were in the hallway.
“I stood up I felt a suction or something in the air and the next thing I knew I moved my arms to look, and the door came off the hinges and I could see the door flying down the hall,” Carolyn said. “My husband jumped up to prevent the door from hitting me. He hurt his shoulder and I did get cut by some broken glass, but overall, we’re okay.”
Running to her mother-in-law's house saved their life. Once the storm subsided, they went outside to realize their home which was only a couple hundred feet away was gone, with remnants of it spewed all around the area. They had only been in that home for about a year and a half and had just finished furnishing it.
“We lost all our material stuff,” Carolyn said. “But I am just thankful that God spared our lives, and we got out in time.”
The Barnes’ are heartbroken, but planning to rebuild, and credit their tight-knit community and the support they’ve been receiving from organizations such as the Red Cross for giving them the strength to start their recovery process.
“Everybody knows everybody, and everybody looks after each other around here,” Carolyn said.
You can make a difference in the lives of people affected by tornadoes and storms in the South and Midwest. Visit redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or text the word TORNADO to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Your donation enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from these disasters.
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