Tornado topples Damascus home, 4 survive
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 19, 2011
![0419damascus](https://www.andalusiastarnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2011/04/0419damascus.jpg)
Four people survived uninjured when a tornado wreaked havoc with this mobile home in the Damascus community between Andalusia and Brewton. Photo courtesy of The Brewton Standard.
Edna King Hodoh still hasn’t gotten over what happened late Friday night when a storm swept through the Damascus community, damaging her home and destroying others in the neighborhood, including her sister’s trailer. Damascus is between Andalusia and Brewton.
“We were blessed,” Hodoh said.
Two mobile homes in Damascus were completely destroyed, while several other mobile homes and brick houses sustained some damage.
The line of storms passed through just before midnight Friday, and the National Weather Service in Mobile said the storm that hit the Damascus area was probably a tornado.
Hodoh and her husband were at home in their mobile home when the storm hit.
“All of a sudden there was a whoosh and everything started to fly all over the place,” Hodoh said. “It was a strange sound, and it’s hard to explain. I was in the den when, all of a sudden, a tree flew into the bedroom wall.”
A big hole in the mobile home where the tree came through has been temporarily covered with duct tape. The railing at the front door steps was torn away and the sliding glass doors were broken.
Her car had been parked beside the mobile home, she said. Now that same car has been moved some 30 or 40 feet and left sitting on all four tires. It looks as if someone could get in it and drive away, although Hodoh said she hadn’t tried to drive it yet.
The home of Marrinetta Williams, Hodoh’s sister, was totally demolished — blown off its foundation and left lying upside down.
The four people in the mobile home at the time of the storm were not hurt, and Hodoh said there was a 5-year-old who crawled out from under the rubbish after the storm was over.
“I don’t know how they got out alive,” Hodoh said. “I don’t know how any of us didn’t die. It hurt me yesterday when I looked at all the damage and I just cried ‘Oh, my God.’ None of us got a scratch on us and all this destruction.”