Kimball Neighborhood: One Year After Tornado Touches Down

November 14, 2008 - 1:40 PM

One year ago today a tornado ripped through a Kimball neighborhood. NewsChannel 9's Erica Green went back to the area and spoke to neighbors about the destruction. One woman says getting a Coke saved her life.

It may look like your typical Marion County neighborhood now with vinyl sided houses and wooden porches but it looked very different one year ago when a tornado crashed through Kimball ruining homes and an area church.

" My brother had went to the back door and watched it come over the top of the house and it shook the whole house he said and he said they all hit the bathroom and he got in the tub with the dog," said Jeff Terry.

The Terry family has been living in the same house for the past 10 years. They had very little damage but people down the street have a different story.

Some houses were blown away down to the foundation. We spoke to some neighbors in the area who say they missed the tornado by just minutes.

" I said 'let's stop for a coke.' If we'd would of come up we'd be almost to where the tornado had just touched down," said Elizabeth Terry.

Elizabeth Terry says something inside her told her to stop at that store and she says she often has feelings like that.

" Sometimes I do. That was one of them times. I'm glad I got it."

"It's nature. You can't control it and you're really not too safe with a tornado in the area anyway you have to have some kind of Shelter I think," said Jeff Terry.

The Kimball Baptist Church has been rebuilt in a different location and the lot where the old one once stood is still for sale.

Some families who lost their houses in that neighborhood say they have built tornado shelters ont heir property and if another twister rips through they'll be prepared.