Cary workers recover yearbook for Sanford tornado victim

Beth Pope's home in Sanford was left splintered by the tornado that hopscotched its way from Sanford through Raleigh. She and her husband escaped without injury, but their son remained in UNC Hospitals on Wednesday with a punctured lung.

"We've basically lost everything we had," Pope said. "I could feel we were being lifted up. I just started screaming. It's a miracle that we're still here."

Some of her memories also survived unscathed.

The tornado carried her 1978 Lee County High School yearbook about 30 miles to Cary, where SAS employees clearing storm debris found it on the software developer's campus on Monday.

SAS posted pictures from the yearbook to the employee website, and Shannon Heath then went looking for the book's owner.

Using the name "Beth Morgan" found in the book's autograph section, she posted information on her Facebook page. Someone else took the information and posted it to a Facebook page set up for storm victims in Sanford.

"We just really wanted to get it to her, because in times like these, you hold onto whatever you can," Heath said.

Within 12 hours, someone linked the yearbook to Pope.

WRAL News returned the yearbook to her on Wednesday.

"I am surprised it's still intact," she said, adding that the book and the memories it contains have never been more important.

"It definitely does mean a lot to me that somebody cared enough to try to contact me and try to give me some of my memories back," she said. "It's just a part of my life."