Couple rebuilds with safety in mind 1 year after tornadoes

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — One year ago, tornadoes tore through Catawba, Rutherford and Burke counties.

Many families showed Eyewitness News the damage, including a Hildebran couple who lost their home. Now, a year later, that family has rebuilt.

Inside the new home, Terry Helton showed Eyewitness News the safe room where he and his girlfriend will go during a tornado warning.

“It is heavily studded -- double studded all the way around,” he said.

The couple had very little warning before the storm destroyed Linda Thomas' home in under a minute last year. They got on the floor and used a mattress to protect themselves from flying debris.

“I got under the mattress and then all the debris from the ceiling and the roof and all this dirt and stuff was swirling underneath us, and stuff was crashing down. Just the terror of it,” Thomas said.

“I teared up and said, ‘Honey, the house is gone but we're alive. We lived through that. We are alive.’  We looked around and the house was just blown apart,” Helton said.

Even now, a year after the storm, you can still see some of the damage. Trees were snapped in half and siding was blown off of homes.  Burke County EMS said more than 75 homes were either damaged or destroyed by the storm.

Now, a weather radio sits in Thomas's living room and stays on when the forecast calls for stormy weather.

The couple said they will never forget what happened or the days afterward, when people they had never met before offered to help.

“They worked every day nonstop to rebuild this house,” Thomas said. “And I thank God for them and the way the community came together.”

WSOC