“It’s just God,” Cook told CNN on Friday.
Cook and her husband drove out the tornado in a closet in their two-story home in Birmingham’s Eagle Point neighborhood. They could see the thunderclouds above them when the roof gave way.
Cook said that after the storm passed, she wanted to keep as many of her photos from her damaged home as possible.
She later noticed that the cross was still in her backyard and the purple fabric hadn’t blown away.
“It’s still there and my cross is still there because God was with all these people and us,” Cook said.
She plans to replace the cloth with a white one on Easter Sunday.
“This is what God is all about,” Cook said, pointing to the cross. “Lent is a sad time, but it will be beautiful again on that Easter Sunday.”
The National Weather Service said 23 tornadoes formed in the Southeast Thursday through Friday – one in Mississippi; 17 in Alabama; and five in Georgia.
The tornadoes killed at least five people in Calhoun County, Alabama, and one person in Coweta County, Georgia, south of Atlanta.
A tornado wreaked havoc near Cook, destroying trees and reducing brick-walled houses to rubble.
“Tornadoes are known to haphazardly damage some homes and properties and not others,” said CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. “In this case, it appears that the tornado lifted and fell several times before leaving the cross and scarf in place, but destroying the roof of the nearby house.”
The drone of chainsaws could be heard nearby on Friday as people worked to clear the debris and spread blue tarps over damaged homes.