Local Churches Finish House for Alabama Man Who Lost Everything in 2011 Tornadoes
By Charmaine Smith-Miles

The members at Clemson Presbyterian Church didn’t have a dollar of support when they told Jim Mosley, an Alabama man, they would build him a new house to replace the one that a tornado destroyed in April.

Now, he is days away from moving into his new home.

On April 27, a tornado swept through Mosley’s hometown of Pleasant Grove, Ala.

An entire neighborhood directly behind Mosley’s house was destroyed. At the end of that day, tornadoes had ripped through six states, killing 297 people and destroying more than 20,000 businesses in Alabama.

The house that Mosley’s grandfather built in 1925 was pulled completely off its foundation. Mosley survived by taking cover in the doorframe.

The images that flashed across computers and television screens haunted Steve Sanders.

A week after the storm, he called a church in Birmingham and asked about how people could help. Mosley’s name came up, because his home was not covered by homeowners’ insurance as the result of its age.

By June, Steve Sanders, his wife, Sharon, and their daughter, architect Sara Newton, were on their way to Alabama to meet with Mosley. The Sanderses are members of Clemson Presbyterian.

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