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Journal Photo by Paul Garber

Amber Parker combs through the wreckage of her house in Frye Bridge Estates near Clemmons. She and her two young sons survived by using a closet as shelter.

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By Paul Garber | Journal Reporter

Published: May 10, 2008

Throughout the region yesterday, people expressed thanks, even as rubble surrounded them.

The storm that tore through parts of Davie, Forsyth and Guilford counties Thursday night killed one person and injured a handful of others, despite causing thousands of dollars in damages to houses and businesses.

Here are the stories of some of those affected:

Clemmons: Singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus'

Amber Parker knew that she was in trouble when the raging storm outside her home suddenly went silent.

Parker had been following the news about approaching storms and knew that they were headed toward her home in the Frye Bridge Estates community just outside of Clemmons.

She got up to check on her 2-year-old son, Avery.

"All of a sudden everything stopped," she said. "The only thing I could think was, ‘It's already here,'" she said.

She grabbed Avery and her 3-year-old son, Will, and headed to the safest spot in the house, a closet underneath the steps.

"My ears were popping so hard I didn't think I'd make it," she said.

Parker said she had just made it into the closet when the house collapsed around her and her children.

They were trapped underneath the rubble in a space not much larger than a foot locker, she said. But they were unhurt. To keep the kids calm, they all sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Jesus Loves Me."

"We prayed, and we thanked God we were all right," said Parker, who escaped with scratches and bruises.

Firefighters and neighbors arrived in a matter of minutes, working to help pull her and her children out.

She said when she emerged from the closet space, she felt a breeze and some rain and figured that the roof of the house had been blown off.

Then she realized the enormity of what had happened.

"I was just standing above a tiny pile, and there was nothing left," she said.

The family took shelter at a neighbor's house. She said she was thankful that her children were not seriously hurt.

"God was with us," she said.

Next-door neighbor Chris Ellis was one of the first to arrive at Parker's house after it collapsed. Ellis, 17, a senior at West Forsyth High School, had watched as his bedroom window shattered and the roof of his house was blown off.

He and his family were in the basement of their house when Chris heard someone yelling, "We need flashlights." He grabbed a flashlight from his truck and ran over to Parker's house.

When he saw the damage, he thought the people inside must be dead.

"I don't know how they made it," he said.

The roof of the Ellis home was blown off by the storm and the house is unlivable. A house on the other side of Moss Creek Lane also had its roof blown off.

One street over, on Bridge Pointe Drive, a house owned by Ray and Lorinda Whaley was knocked off its foundation.

Ray Whaley said he was in Georgia on business when his wife called.

"She said ‘We're in the basement. The house caved in on us,'" Whaley said.

Lorinda and their four children, ages 18 to 6, had raced to the basement for protection from the storm, Whaley said.

That probably saved their lives, said Whaley, who was philosophical about losing the house. "You know, it's just a bunch of sticks," he said. "It could have been a lot worse. No one got killed."

Advance: ‘Inside the bedroom carpet'

William Lanning had just gone to bed when his wife, Cindy, came upstairs to tell him that a tornado was headed their way and that they needed to get the children to a safe place.

He said yesterday that he stood up to put his pants on and, in that moment, the "closet blew up and the wind filled the room and everything went dark."

"I didn't hear a thing," Lanning said. "I didn't hear the dreaded train."

The master bedroom extends over the garage of their ranch-style house. The wind blew the roof off and the floor beneath the room collapsed, with the bedroom landing in the garage, crushing the cars.

Cindy Lanning found herself rolled up inside the bedroom carpet. William Lanning was cut and bruised in the fall.

From the garage, the only way back into the main part of the house was outside. The couple stumbled around in the dark until they found a door to the house and their son let them in. The children were unharmed, Lanning said.

"I am thankful nobody was hurt or killed."

Colfax: ‘We are having church on Sunday'

At Zion Hill United Methodist Church on Sandy Ridge Road just south of I-40, the wind ripped off roof shingles and ripped siding from the steeple.

The wind broke big branches from a pine tree and stained-glass windows on the south side of the church.

"It could have been a lot worse," church member Darrell Hagan said. "There's nothing that can't be fixed, and we are having church on Sunday."

Susie Manuel was in her mobile home on Farrington Road, just off Sandy Ridge Road, watching television about 11 p.m. when she heard that there was a storm in Clemmons. Her husband, Ricky, was asleep in a bedroom at one end of the trailer and her adult son, Jeremy, was asleep in his room at the other end.

A moment after her satellite-TV service went out, she knew she and her family were in trouble.

"I heard this whistling sound, and right then I knew it was coming this way," she said. "I heard this roar that got louder and louder."

She yelled for her husband and son, and all three hurried for her son's bathroom, because it has no windows.

Manuel said she thought she was going to die.

"The house was going a little bit side-to-side, and the floor was going up and down," Manuel said. For 35 frightening minutes, the three huddled in the bathtub, trying to calm their dog, Sophie, who was shaking.

"It was an awful roar, loud, and we never heard one tree fall," Manuel said.

When things got quiet, the family went outside and found that their home was nearly surrounded by oak trees that had fallen. Two huge ones lay in the front yard, and two in the back, but only one tree brushed the house, causing minor damage. Two other large oaks stood in the backyard. Had they fallen, Manuel said, they would have smashed the house.

■ Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.

■ David Rolfe can be reached at 727-7249 or at drolfe@wsjournal.com.

■ Journal reporter Wesley Young contributed to this article.

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