MARSHALL COUNTY, Ala (WHNT) — After surveying the damage across Marshall County, the National Weather Service confirmed that Saturday night’s storm was an EF-1 tornado. Clean-up across the county is now underway.
Jeff Riggins is one of many across the Tennessee Valley whose home was damaged.
“When I looked out the back door, I saw limbs, and there’s no trees in the back,” Riggins said. “So the tree in front of the house had split off and it was hanging out way across the house, and I could see the limbs out the back door.”
A large oak tree in the front yard fell on top of his home, and also caused roof damage to his barn in the back.
Across the street, Lisa Stephens and her husband were asleep when the storms came through. They were woken up by their weather radio notifying them of the tornado warning. She said they immediately got up to head to their storm shelter, but it wasn’t enough time.
“Just when I come down to go out the door, it hit,” Stephens said. “It was really fast. The place just started just shaking really bad, and my husband just kind of pushed me to the floor, and I had the dog under me, and he’s on top of me, and he said, it’s on us.”
She said the moment was horrifying.
“He said he heard whistling, and I’m calling for Jesus.”
The roof had blown across their yard, landing on Riggins’ property over a hundred yards away.
“We realized sometime during the night that our roof was across the road, and so we just got our tractor and went down there and drug that up here,” Stephens said.
While both families clean up the damage, more than anything, they are grateful they weren’t hurt.
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