About a dozen mobile homes in the Willow trace mobile home park were destroyed in Raeford Sunday evening. Although high winds were reported and homes were demolished, the National Weather Service said Monday afternoon that it was straight line winds that struck the area - not twisters.
The weather service had issued a tornado warning for Cumberland and Hoke counties around the time the thunderstorms hit.
Rosetta Holliday, 75, told ABC11 Eyewitness News she prayed as her home shook and eventually imploded with her inside.
"He [God] saved," she said. "I know he saved me."
Holliday is overcome with emotion, looking at what's left of her home.
"It's a miracle," she said, crying. "It's God's grace, and his mercy, that He saved me!"
Fierce winds Sunday night tore down the home where she has lived for 26 years. She described the moment that the mobile home began to shake.
"[The] back door started shaking, so I was gonna say 'Lord, what should I get?' But I went and got on the bed in the back room. That's where I was," she told ABC11.
The bed can be seen under a collapsed wall. Hours earlier she had prayed there -- prayed for deliverance from the storm that destroyed everything around her.
"And I looked out, there was a way, thank God, he had prepared for me to get out!" she exclaimed.
Holliday says she is not worried about the loss of worldly things like her mobile home.
"Oh yes, yes, we're not worried about the home," she said confidently. "I said, 'God, save me.' I asked him to save me and He did. And I thank him."
Holliday says she's not sure where she will live, but one of her sons will take her in while the family figures out what's next.
On Monday morning, her family and neighbors helped her sift through what was left, looking for personal items and prescription medicines.
Holliday has five daughters and two sons.
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