Amazing Grace

An Alabama installer and his family survived a massive tornado even as his home and shop were blown away

Dale Mask, president of Dale’s Septic Service in Eclectic, Ala., has a remarkable story to tell. When the killer tornado struck on April 27, it ripped a three-quarter-mile-wide swath across the landscape. Mask, his wife, and two granddaughters hid in a closet as the twister destroyed two-thirds of their home.

“It’s something we’ll never forget,” Mask says, whose onsite installation business was profiled in the June 2007 Onsite Installer. “By the grace of God, the one section of roof that didn’t blow off was over the closet. My family and I walked out unscathed.” His 84-year-old mother had a similar experience. She heard a knock at the front door. When she opened it, no one was there.

Then the house collapsed around her. Eight feet of the chimney went through the lift chair in which she had been sitting. “The only safe place was under that door jamb where she stood with her walker,” says Mask. “We’re certain that dad knocked on the door. He drowned in a freak accident in 1970.”

The tornado blew out the windows at his business and destroyed some of the building, but left enough usable equipment for Mask to mobilize two of his four crews. He expected to have the other two crews up and running by June, and to have his shop rebuilt a couple of months later.

“I ordered the metal, as getting materials is no problem,” he says. “I’m paying as I go because I can’t afford to wait for the insurance money. My philosophy is to roll up your sleeves and go back to work.”

Mask and his family are staying with friends. Once he settles the insurance issue on his house, he will bulldoze the remains and start over. “We thank God every day that we’re alive and uninjured,” he says. “We were truly blessed.”



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