A new home to anchor their Jackson County farm wasn't exactly in the plans for Andra and Larry Holliday, but Mother Nature thought otherwise.

On June 11, 2008, the couple returned from an evening outing to their home in the rural town of Soldier and saw the warnings on TV. Larry says Andra decided to go to the basement, but he was going to go back to bed. Then, he looked out the window and saw the trees bending sideways in the wind and thought he should go, too.

"It wasn't but a minute or so and it hit," Larry recalls.

The tornadoes that had torn through Chapman and Manhattan less than an hour earlier danced over the treetops and tore into their home. Larry remembers coming up from the basement and looking up. Instead of a ceiling, he saw sky and knew at least part of the roof was gone.

The light of day showed them the full impact of the devastation. Two walls were gone, causing the home to buckle in on itself. Limbs were scattered, two by fours were everywhere.

They weren't alone. Across the road, the neighbors home was reduced to a pile of rubble. Beyond there, a mobile home laid in a twisted heap in a field across from where it once stood. The man who lived there was killed. More than 30 other homes in the Soldier community also suffered damage.

"It was more than just a strong wind," Larry said. "Fortunately, we weren't hurt, are still here period."

Andra says it was so overwhelming, you just did't know where to start. Turns out, they really didn't need to decide.

Almost immediately, friends, family, neighbors and strangers showed up with bulldozers and skid loaders to help clear the debris and pack up whatever could be saved in waterproof tubs.

"It was unbelievable the help, the support," Larry says. "We would never have got it done on our own."

That sort of support is why where was never much question they would rebuild and remain in Soldier.

Of course, there also wasn't much question a concrete storm safe room would be part of the new home.

Also part of the home is the refrigerator that survived the storm. Its doors were closed when they found it in the rubble, but somehow it was filled with insulation, dirt and mud. All that was cleaned, but the doors still show several dings from where it was battered by debris.

The trees surrounding the home also are a bit tattered and you'll still find bits of twisted metal strewn about.

But to see how the Hollidays and their neighbors have risen from the rubble, it's easy to see how a tornado did nothing to uproot the ties that bind the community of Soldier, in good times and tough.

"It's humbling," Andra says. "It's easier to give and do for somebody else than to be in a position where you accept help. But we couldn't have done it without them."