‘God is Good,’ Family survives as tornado tears house apart

Joe Mays almost ignored a National Weather Service announcement of a tornado watch and then he almost ignored the tornado warning.

Paying attention likely saved the lives of his wife and three sons as an early Wednesday morning tornado destroyed his home on New Quarters Road in Tallassee.

“At first we started to roll back over to go back to sleep,” Mays said while sifting through the rubble of his home Wednesday afternoon. “Let’s face it, we live in the South and are used to hearing a tornado siren.”

But something tugged at Mays to be proactive and get ready.

“We didn’t go back to sleep — something told us to get up and get dressed,” Mays said. “We had the news playing and stepped out the door looking the direction it was coming from. I was waiting for them to say something to where I could judge ‘Do we leave or do we stay.’”

Mays had stepped outside looking west to see if there was anything visible when announcers said Dark Corners Road — less than a quarter mile away from the Mays’ family home. He knew there was no time to go somewhere else. With only seconds to spare, Mays packed his family into a small three feet by three feet space between a bedroom, bathroom and living room.

“It was kind of sketchy,” Mays said. “We said, ‘Oh Lord, it’s either going to be the end or You are going to watch over us.’ It’s going to be one or the other. There was no question about it. If the AC unit came down we were done. If it didn’t we were good.”

The house started to rip apart from around the family. The roof peeled back and the wind took the air conditioning unit and threw it hundreds of yards away.

“God said, 'I'll take that on over there,’” Mays said. “There is the squirrel cage out in the field. My cook top and roof to my porch is somewhere out there too.”

Then it got quiet.

“We couldn’t get out without help,” Mays said. “It was dark and didn’t know what was there because we couldn’t see a thing.”

Mays was able to peek around from the safe spot.

“At first we were like we’re good,” Mays said. “The tornado is gone and it quit raining. I peeked my head out and thought my TV might still be good. About two minutes later it started to downpour.”

But the family was still stuck until help arrived nearly a half hour later. Mays said a coworker was first to get there just in front of the Tallassee Fire Department. Mays said he started to hand children off to safety.

Wednesday afternoon, Mays was still trying to figure out how the family made it through a direct hit. All that stood safely of the home was where the family sought shelter and prayed as the winds struck.

“Just seeing where we were and trying to figure out how that is still standing with all that is around it, it’s not possible,” Mays said. “There are no words for it. It’s incomprehensible that one square of wall in our entire house is still standing. The walls are there, not the roof but they are still sturdy.”

But Mays said he believes he has an answer as to how the family survived.

“God is good and He held us all tight,” Mays said. “The kids have some scratches but that’s it. I’m like if that is all we got, we’re good. We’re good.”

The Tallassee community has stepped in to help pull together clothing, toiletries and more to aid the family as it recovers.

“Our community being what it is has gone head over heels helping,” Mays said. “They are coming together doing whatever they can to help us out in any way they can from clothes to whatever they can do.”

Dreamcatcher Comics and Collectables is taking donations of clothing and toiletries. Boys sizes 8-8, 1-12 and 12-14 are needed, mens 3x and women’s XL. Shoe sizes are boys 1, 3 and 6, men's size 13 and women’s size 9 and all toiletry items.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by Kevin Schweitzer to help the family get reestablished and find another rental home in Tallassee.

“We were talking about moving into town,” Mays said. “I guess now we will move into town. We weren’t given a lot of options this time, but we will make it work.”

But Mays is most proud no one was seriously injured.

“Now it is a matter of trying to dig it all out and salvage what we can,” Mays said. “At least we are good. I would rather lose stuff than have a bad injury or death.”