The silence was eerie. For a few seconds that seemed like hours, Donna Boles sat in her basement listening to the sound of absolutely nothing. She was caught in the eye of the storm.

Boles, a resident of Hillcrest, an area near Tuscaloosa, Ala., had fled to her basement when she learned that her home lay in the path of a tornado. Her daughter in California had seen news reports of the storm system and called Boles to warn her.

After a few seconds of that unbearable silence, Boles heard the wind pick up again and the sound of breaking glass. When she finally emerged from the basement, she had no idea that the storm had devastated her community.




“Honestly, I didn’t think it had been that ghastly,” Boles said. “I was starting up the stairs, and I heard frantic pounding on my front door. It was two of my neighbors coming to see if I had made it. That was the first thing we did, just within seconds. We went around and determined everyone in the neighborhood was alive.”

The celebration of life was cut short as residents noticed the immense damage. The neighborhood had been filled with houses and huge, thick trees just minutes before. Now large gaps of open space filled the view.




Boles said she hopes many of her neighbors will choose to rebuild their homes. Samaritan's Purse helped them take the first step in restarting their lives when our volunteers arrived in the neighborhood and began cutting up and removing fallen trees.

“You’re a Godsend," Boles told our team. "It’s so impressive, your good work. ... We’re saying, ‘Thank You, God, because You have sent these people.’"




In the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes that hit Alabama on April 27, Samaritan’s Purse responded quickly by sending staff and equipment to the hard-hit communities surrounding Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Hundreds of volunteers are working with us to help homeowners salvage valuable belongings, to clean up storm debris, and to make emergency repairs to damaged roofs.

Our teams make it clear they are helping in the Name of Jesus Christ by praying with homeowners and presenting them with a Bible, when they finish. This compassionate outreach provides tangible evidence that God hasn’t forgotten the storm victims.

Samaritan's Purse disaster relief teams will be working in the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa areas for months to come, meeting people’s physical needs while showing them the way to spiritual hope through Jesus Christ.

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