Dena Cook lost her roof when a tornado tore through her Birmingham, Alabama, neighborhood on Thursday. Yet, her faith remains unshaken, especially after discovering that the cross in her backyard, draped with a purple scarf for Lent, stood untouched by the storm.
“It’s just God,” Cook said on Friday.
Cook and her husband took shelter in a closet of their two-story home in the Eagle Point neighborhood. As the tornado raged above, their roof was torn away, leaving them exposed to the storm clouds.
After the storm passed, Cook focused on salvaging photographs from their damaged home. It was then she noticed the cross standing firm in her backyard, the scarf still intact.
“It’s still there because God was with us and everyone here,” she said.
Her husband had built the cross last year during the pandemic, and the purple cloth symbolized Lent—a time of reflection leading up to Easter. After the storm, Cook adjusted the scarf to mirror the arrangement at her church and plans to replace it with a white cloth on Easter Sunday.
“Lent is a sorrowful time, but Easter brings beauty and renewal,” she reflected, pointing to the cross.
The National Weather Service confirmed at least 14 tornadoes across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky between Thursday and Friday, causing extensive damage. Six lives were lost—five in Alabama’s Calhoun County and one in Georgia’s Coweta County.
Cook’s neighborhood was hit hard, with homes reduced to rubble and trees snapped in half. However, the cross and scarf remained standing, a moment CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam attributed to the tornado lifting and dropping at different points.
By Friday, the sound of chain saws filled the air as neighbors worked together to clear debris and cover roofs with tarps.