Family hunkers down in homemade shelter as storm destroys their home just steps away

By Gladys Bautista

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    MAPLESVILLE, Alabama (WVTM) — Debris and clean-up crews lined Chilton County Road 340 Sunday after several homes were torn to shreds after storms the night before.

Ralph and Rebecca Mims spent all of Sunday trying to salvage 15 years of memories from their mobile home that was picked up from its foundation and dropped feet away during Saturday’s storms.

“Everything you work for is gone at one time,” Ralph said with tears in his eyes.

“We’ve got pictures, we’ve got a few clothes, we’ve got a lot to go through,” Rebecca said. “You see it hitting a lot of people. You don’t expect it to hit you, but it did.”

The Mims family heard the storm because they were steps away from their mobile home when it hit — hunkering down in a homemade storm shelter deep in the ground just feet away from their home.

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They built it two years ago, and on Saturday, it was the shelter all 15 members of their family needed.

“I said, ‘Grab your shoes, let’s go,” Rebecca said. “I grabbed the kids, and everybody came out here. We could hear the wind, and it was just picking up and it was getting really, really strong and lightening and it was just really strong. They closed the doors and we could just hear stuff hitting outside and banging around.”

“If we had been in that house, we wouldn’t be here today,” Ralph said.

The scene of their mobile home destroyed is what the Mims family and many others in Maplesville saw when the storms passed.

More than two dozen Chilton County deputies patrolled the area Sunday, helping in any way they can.

“A lot of them [mobile homes] sit far off the road, so we had one residence that was about a half of a mile off the road,” Chilton County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Ken Harmon said. “We had to cut trees all the way to the house to be able to assist them, so it took time and effort to get to them.”

Harmon said county officials tried to track the storm that passed through, and as of their estimates, it left a track of more than 15 miles of damage.

With people in need, the Clear Water Cowboy Church stepped in to help.

“EMA wanted to come in and send the command center here so we opened up so people can bring food, supplies in as needed,” Danie Nichols said.

Nichols helped carry out three car loads of food from the church Sunday alone, and planned on doing more in the days to come.

“Just a little something to help them get by,” Nichols said.

With only one storm-related injury in the county, many, like Ralph and Rebecca Mims, are counting their blessings, which include their family and new friends like Nicholas.

“It’s been amazing,” Rebecca said. “We can’t do it without them. I don’t know where we’ve even started today without all these people.”

People holding each other up with helping hands, helping their neighbors.

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