North Carolina Family Saved by 'Divine Intervention'

“My biggest takeaway from this is that there is an Almighty God that saved this family.”

Those are the words of a resident of Pantega, North Carolina, after an EF2 tornado destroyed the home of Mark and Carla Van Essendelft and several other families in their neighborhood on Monday, April 7.

With winds of up to 135 mph, the tornado completely destroyed a half-dozen homes in the Pantega area. No one was killed in the disaster. Thirteen people were injured.

After checking on a neighbor, Mark Van Essendelft made a decision to move his family from where he found them in their home’s bathtub and into a nearby ditch.

The decision—and divine intervention—saved their lives. A few minutes later, the broken remnants of their house were spread out across the landscape.

If the family had still been inside, the outcome could have destroyed much more than their dwelling. A tree fell on Carla Van Essendelft and one of their youngest children, keeping the wind from sweeping them away.

Carla Van Essendelft suffered some cuts and bruises and was held at the hospital to make sure that she and her unborn baby were alright. She was released on April 8 to continue to await the birth of baby number seven.

“Thank the Lord everyone’s alive,” Mark Van Essendelft said.

The Van Essendelfts were assisted by World Renew Disaster Response Services (DRS) volunteers who were working on a long-term reconstruction site in nearby Belhaven, repairing homes that were damaged by Hurricane Irene in 2011.

“Our group was just finishing the first day’s work in Belhaven at about 4 p.m. when the tornado warning was issued,” said Peter Roukema, one of the volunteers.

“There were some anxious moments on the drive back to our lodging—the tornado was about half-mile away from the road and kept up with our vehicles for about 15 minutes.”

Thanks to a timely phone call from construction supervisors Joel and Angie Ploegstra, the volunteers made it back to their home base without incident—and then turned into a short-term DRS Rapid Response Team on the spot.

The group re-deployed to Pantega where they assisted Mark and Carla Van Essendelft’s, among others.

“The home was literally ripped from its foundation, and the (Van Essendelft) family narrowly escaped with their lives,” Roukema said in a report to DRS staff.

“Their house and its contents had become a huge pile of rubble and was lying 50 yards away in what was left of the trees. The entire roof was torn off and came to rest about a mile further down the road.”

A member of Terra Ceia Christian Reformed Church said that DRS volunteers helped the Van Essendelfts tarp the roof of one of the damaged buildings that was left standing on their property.

Other DRS team members helped the families move their possessions out of their homes, working alongside those whose lives had been so dramatically changed in a matter of minutes.

“We’re so thankful with the families who were affected by the tornadoes that God’s hand of protection was over them all,” said Bill Adams, director of DRS.

World Renew’s volunteers were joined by others, including a DRS Spring Break team from the Oak Hill Evangelical Presbyterian Church youth group in Grand Rapids, Mich. The inter-generational group was in the area and came to lend their hands to the work.

“We were all working together on a common cause,” said Mark Wybenga, an Oak Hill leader. “Our group sprang into action and worked late into the night to tarp damaged roofs to protect the houses from the rain.

“We helped families and neighbors rummage through debris to find their precious belongings. We were so blessed to be able to help minister unexpectedly to people in immediate need this way.”