'Keep your faith': 2011 Tornado survivor offers encouragement to Nash, Edgecombe Co. families

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- "It kind of all happened at one time," said Natasha Withers as she recalled the moments 12 years ago when a tornado destroyed her home and community.

She was out to eat when the storm struck her McKinely Mill subdivision in North Raleigh.

She came home to destruction.

"I was like, 'Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?'" she said. "So we had left my car in the garage and so I'm sitting here, I'm like, 'Why is my car outside of the garage?' But then I realized that the garage was gone."

Her family lost everything. Eyewitness News met Withers and her family following the 2011 tornado where she described the damage to her home. Half of the roof was gone and holes in the ceiling.

12 years later we were back with Withers. Her family has since rebuilt the home destroyed in the tornado and moved five minutes away to Roseville.

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"I look back now and I was like, wow, that was a lot. But we made it through and we're better for it," she said.

Withers is sharing that message with the victims of Wednesday's tornado that destroyed homes across Nash and Edgecombe counties.

"Keep your faith, surround yourself with your friends, your family, and the community," she said. "I think at times like this, this is when the community really comes together and show how humanity has not died."

Withers shared that through her experience, families who lost everything will experience emotional, stressful, and challenging days ahead as they try to figure out what's next.

"It's hard to see right now when you're right there in the middle of it. But trust me when I say that you can really get through this, it takes a lot, but you can do it, " she said.