Just as he stepped out onto his front porch, Derrick Davis froze in panic. On his way out to get dinner for his 12-year-old daughter's birthday sleepover, Davis looked up and saw a funnel cloud on the ground, approaching his house all too quickly.
Knowing his wife, two daughters and two friends were in the house, unsuspecting, the Polk County football coach raced back inside.
"I had barely gotten to the door when I looked up and saw it coming," Davis said. "It was like something out of the movie 'Twister.' When I looked up and saw stuff hitting the house and debris flying up, it was a scary feeling. All I could think was to yell for everybody to get downstairs in the basement as fast as possible."
When a series of tornadoes blew through the area earlier this month, an EF2 storm hit Davis' home as well as the farm surrounding his father's and sister's houses. His house sustained serious roof damage and the foundation was cracked. Eight trees were blown down in his yard and several others went down in the field behind the house, the lining in his swimming pool was ripped and his kids' trampoline was found several hundred yards away, twisted around a tree.
"In about 10 seconds it was over," Davis said. "But it's amazing how much damage a storm can do in just a matter of seconds. And it's depressing to look around and see your home damaged and things you own blown away, especially the girls' stuff.
"We built our house near my parents' house where I grew up, and there's stuff like a 100-year-old barn that got blown away. It's nothing that can't be replaced, but it's still a terrible feeling to see your home like that."
Davis, who has become one of the most respected young coaches in the state for turning his alma mater in Benton into a perennial playoff team, began the cleanup the day after the storm. He knew repairs couldn't begin until he had cleared the debris from the house, but what he didn't expect was where help would come from.
As word spread about the damage to the Davises' house, coaches from other schools began calling to offer help. Christian Academy of Knoxville, which has knocked the Wildcats out of the state playoffs the last two years in the second round, sent 30 students to Davis' property just outside Benton to help the cleanup effort.
"They wouldn't take no for an answer," Davis said. "They just showed up and started working. My phone didn't stop ringing for a while with other coaches calling and offering to take days off work to come out and help. That means a lot to me and my family, to be honest, just to know people are thinking about you and willing to help when things are down. It's humbling.
"We were fortunate that our house was still standing, but then I realized how blessed I really am when other coaches started calling. I guess you realize what 12 years of friendships can do. You go head-to-head against each other every Friday night, and you would think we don't like each other the way we get after each other, but it really is like a big family.
"There's still a lot of work to do, but we wouldn't be nearly as far into fixing things if it hadn't been for a lot of coaches in the area helping out, and I really appreciate all those guys."