This weekend, marks two years since recovery efforts got underway in Atkins following a deadly tornado. Every family has its own way of coping. Sunday, we met three using faith to help them pull through.
"It sounded like a big explosion went off in the house. We could hear the wood splintering," said William Hambright.
"It took them about four hours to even get us out of here," recalled Betty Hambright.
"Our roof lifted up and came back down and cracked every sheetrock in our whole house," said Larry Wiley.
An EF3 tornado hit Atkins two years ago leaving behind a deadly path of destruction. It ripped apart Union Grove Baptist Church where Sunday families remembered tornado victims in the new worship center.
Church member Stephen Fletcher recalls the conversation he had with his dad right before the tornado hit. "Make sure you get the dog out and get somewhere safe, and he told me where he was going, and I told him I loved him, and that's the last thing I remember saying to him," said Fletcher.
Leon Fletcher did not survive. Recovery teams found his body in a storage trailer carried several yards by the wind.
The Atkins tornado was William Hambright's first. It destroyed his home. When he rebuilt, he had a stronger roof put in. "We have talked about a storm shelter, and there are some that's already built out here in the neighborhood and everything, you know, if we had to, we could get to them," said Hambright.
The Wileys are also staying put. "This is our home. We're not going anywhere," said Diana Wiley. "You move five miles west of here, who's to say it won't happen again. So you don't really have any control," said Larry Wiley.
And while Fletcher misses his dad, he agrees, "You can't hide from it. It's gonna come. You know, if it's your time to go, God thinks your time here is done for, then, you know, it's time to go."
Union Grove held its first service in its new building one year ago. The tornado destroyed fifty homes in Atkins and damaged 120.
