By the Associated Press
OPELIKA, Ala. — An Alabama woman who survived a deadly tornado that blew down most of her home is getting a new place to live thanks to an aid group.
North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse handed Earnestine Reese keys to a rebuilt three-bedroom, two-bath home on Friday.
The tornado that swept through Lee County in March and killed 23 people took down every wall of Reese’s brick home except a small section near a closet where she had prayed for decades, AL.com reported.
Reese and three family members took shelter in a bathroom and survived, though Reese, who is over 70, suffered a broken hip.
A video of Reese afterward thanking God spread online as did the story that her prayer area had survived.
“When Ms. Reese lost everything, she thanked God,” Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement. “As soon as I heard her story, I knew we had to help. Samaritan’s Purse is excited to welcome Ms. Reese home just in time for Christmas.”
The group has replaced more than a dozen other homes in the area and installed eleven storm shelters.
Reese’s new home has a safe room with concrete, steel-reinforced walls, according to Samaritan’s Purse. It also has a place for Reese to pray.
God is good. Beuraguard Alabama. EF4 Tornado.
Posted by Delrico Eiland on Sunday, March 3, 2019