Although some lost all their worldly possessions and others suffered through some very harrowing experiences, Church members in the Huntsville Alabama Stake managed to survive a killer tornado the afternoon of Nov. 15.

The tornado took the lives of 18 of their neighbors, injured 468 others, and destroyed 340 homes, two schools and three churches.Some caught at the scene of the devastation even managed to become heroes, volunteering to help rescue those buried under the rubble.

The tornado struck with very little warning, cutting a 10-mile path of destruction through this community of some 200,000 people. That path ran through the heart of the Byrd Springs Ward, catching members and their neighbors in their homes and businesses and on one of the town's busiest streets.

Mary Wright, a newlywed who had recently moved with her husband, Curtis, into an apartment complex, was visiting with friends in a different part of the complex when the storm hit.

Sister Wright said there was little warning of the tornado except for their ears popping from a sudden drop in air pressure. When that happened, she and several others in the apartment hit the floor and managed to crawl to a room with no windows. The tornado then blew the walls and roof away.

Her husband, at work in another part of the city at the time, said their quick thinking almost certainly saved them from serious injury and even death. The Wrights' apartment, like much of the building, was stripped to the concrete slab. The Wrights lost everything they owned, but their lives were spared.

Although scarred by the tornado, the Wendall Nielson family also was blessed. When the tornado swept down Airport Road, Sister Nielson was driving along that street in one of the family's vehicles behind another family member in a separate car. Both vehicles were picked up and flipped by the tornado and were demolished, but the occupants escaped relatively unharmed.

Sister Nielson suffered a minor head injury, but she was resting at home the next day. Meanwhile, the Nielsons' daughter was working nearby in a department store, a business that took nearly a direct hit from the tornado. Fortunately, she and a number of other employees and customers were alerted moments before the tornado struck and were able to dash inside a jewelry safe. They remained trapped there for several hours before rescuers could get them out.

Meanwhile, four missionaries working in the Byrd Springs Ward - Elders Jason Randall and Darin Peterson, both of Mesa Ariz.; Jim Marshall, Boise, Idaho; and Alan Bird, Idaho Falls, Idaho - were enlisted as part of the rescue team.

They were contacting business people at some of the small stores surrounding a new supermarket. Upon leaving the shopping center, the missionaries were only about 150 yards from Airport Road when the tornado swept through. Elder Randall said it was like a giant vacuum; power lines were breaking loose and exploding overhead and large pieces of debris were thrown past their car.

Moments later, when the wind died down, the four young men left their car, jogged to the scene of the devastation, and volunteered to help look for survivors. As they crawled over the wreckage and dug into the spaces between the broken wooden beams and cracked cement slabs, they began to hear muffled voices under them.

They helped look for survivors at the scene of the devastation near a shopping center. During the four hours they worked in the rain and cold, the young men found and pulled two elderly women from the remains.

"We were scared," said Elder Randall, "but the neat thing about it was being able to dig them out and have them tell us thanks. That made it all worthwhile."

Meanwhile, at the other end of the street, six other members of the Byrd Springs Ward who lived nearby ran to the site and also helped find and care for the injured until the city's professional rescue crews arrived. The ward's priesthood and Relief Society sisters, through telephone calls and personal visits, were able to ascertain the condition of most ward members within just a few hours, despite the fact travel was extremely difficult all through the damaged neighborhood.

Pres. Richard Bartholomew, second counselor in the stake presidency and a member of the Byrd Springs Ward, was a major link in that communication chain. Long an active member of the state's ham radio organization, he took his two sons, Carl and Darin, and the family's ham radio mobile units to the scene. There, they established and maintained radio contact throughout the night with stake Pres. E. Allen Rich, Regional Representative Frank Riggs of Montgomery, and other priesthood leaders.

Other Church members were affected by a power outage that kept a portion of the city in the dark for most of the night. Many others from adjoining wards who worked in the storm-torn section escaped death and injury because they had left the area on their way home from work only minutes before the tornado's arrival.

Bishop Wesley Morgan of the Byrd Springs Ward commended members' efforts to care for each other. He said the Wrights and the Nielsons are being provided for now.

Church members throughout the Huntsville Stake pitched in to help the community's victims during the days that have followed, contributing food, clothing, shelter and cash to help them rebuild. The experience also provided opportunities for more direct service. Members of the Young Men from the nearby Weatherly Ward went door to door collecting donations for Red Cross aid, and other members have comforted victims in hospitals.

Perhaps the most striking impact of the storm has been the reminder of mortality and its limitations, said Elder Randall. "You think you have everything, and in a split second it's all gone."