Tornado-stricken family gets new Kenly home

Kenly, N.C. — A Johnston County family is hoping to get their lives back to normal after a tornado destroyed their mobile home in November.

“Nothing’s been the same since,” Christina Hooks said.

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Kenly family moves forward after tornado

The five-member Hooks family plans to move into a new home on Sunday. The move was made possible by volunteers with the North Carolina Baptist Men, who have been helping to complete a home for them for free over the past 10 Saturdays.

“We always had around 50 to 100 people a Saturday,” North Carolina Baptist Men member Joe Baker said.

Volunteers, including people from 32 churches across the county, worked on a home left empty and uncompleted for about a decade.

Alan Hooks said he and his father had been working on the home. When his father died nine years ago, the house was unfinished. The Hooks never had enough money to finish it, so they left it as a memorial.

“We’re extremely proud they have a beautiful place to live and they’re a little better off than they were before the storm hit,” Baker said.

Christina Hooks said she was especially happy to move into a place with an oven so she can start cooking again.

The N.C. Baptist Men are also helping to rebuild two other tornado damaged homes in Kenly.