Mary Rose and Larry DeArman had a close call on Thursday evening when their home collapsed while they were in the basement -- but they are keeping a positive outlook on what comes next.
Mary Rose, who lives in the Eagle Ridge subdivision near Birmingham, Ala., with her husband, Larry, told ABC NewsOne that the two had to rush from the second story of their home all the way down to the basement to seek shelter in a closet during a surge of severe weather in the state.
At least 14 tornado reports in Alabama came into the NOAA Storm Prediction Center within a span of 12 hours on Thursday. While the DeArmans survived, the tornado outbreak turned deadly for five people.
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| Mary Rose DeArman tells NewsOne how the neighbors helped her and her husband climb out of the basement after their home collapsed. (Photo courtesy of ABC NewsOne) |
"When we got back upstairs, my husband Larry hollered, 'Go downstairs, immediately, go, go, go,'" Mary Rose said.
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Taking refuge in their basement closet, the couple survived even when their home caved in around them.
"When that happened it was just like a roaring, there was no train ... it was a roaring," she said. "House started shaking and then everything caved in on us."
Despite the debris from their home trapping them in their basement, DeArman said she and her husband sustained only minor injuries from the scene.
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| Mary Rose DeArman tells NewsOne how the neighbors helped her and her husband climb out of the basement after their home collapsed. (Photo courtesy of ABC NewsOne) |
"All we got out of it was he had a nail that was stuck in his arm and I got a few minor cuts on my head," she said.
The two were unable to get out of the destruction on their own. Luckily, a neighbor found them and was able to bring two ladders for the couple to to escape from the rubble. The basement was so deep, it required both ladders for the couple to climb out.
With only minor injuries between the two, both of them were released from the hospital. Despite nothing but rubble now standing in the place of their home, Mary Rose DeArman told ABC NewsOne she was "not worried" about the destruction the tornado caused.
"The only thing I was worried about [was that] we came out of it alive. So this, right, to me," she said, gesturing toward what was left of her home, "Nothing."
