By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, May 08, 2026

Members of Coaltown Baptist Church in Purvis, Mississippi, are thanking God after one of at least 14 tornadoes that swept across the state Wednesday, leaving 17 people injured, ripped the roof off their fellowship hall as they sang “Amazing Grace" and no one was hurt. 

Coaltown Baptist Church Pastor Jimmy Breazeale told local media that church members were finishing a meal when they heard tornado sirens. They quickly ran to a hallway behind the sanctuary to take shelter and began to sing and pray.

“They were actually singing ‘Amazing Grace,’” Breazeale told AccuWeather.

As church members comforted each other during the storm’s most intense moments, Breazeale said, “One man looked outside, and he said, ‘It’s coming.’ The wall was just moving back and forth.”

It was only after the tornado had passed that church members realized their roof was gone.

“Just total devastation. We were just thankful to God that we were all safe,” Breazeale said.

Information cited by 4WWL from the National Weather Service said the most significant activity across the state occurred between 5:45 p.m. and about 11 p.m., damaging about 400 homes.

Among those homes was one Dmell Burnes shared in a mobile home park in Bogue Chitto with his young daughter. In an emotional interview with Storm Tracker reporter Charles Peek, he shared how he and his daughter escaped with just their lives.

“Well, I just got in from work, set dinner on the table. It was about five minutes later I started hearing like the train sound, so I told my little girl to come on, let’s get in the closet, and we got in the closet,” he recalled. “We wasn’t in there for five seconds before you could feel the rocking and the wind blowing.”

He explained, while hyperventilating, that they both started praying as the mayhem unfolded outside the closet.

“We started praying, and when I climbed out when it was over, the closet was the only thing left,” he said.

Even though he will have to start his life all over again, Burnes declared, “I’m blessed. I’m blessed.”

Pastor Breazeale’s wife, Frances, told The New York Times that part of the church’s steeple punched through the windshield of her car. She described the storm as quick and terrifying.

“It was something I’ve never been through,” she said. “And it’s nothing I want to go through again.”

Despite the damage suffered by the church, Pastor Breazeale told WKRG News 5 that once word got out that the church had taken a direct hit during the storm, people started showing up to help.

“Most of the people that live here have been here all their lives,” Breazeale said. “It’s just a community that is willing to help.”

Even people who suffered damage to their own homes showed up to help the church recover, Jana Keith, a Coaltown Baptist Church member of 47 years, told the news outlet.

“We’ve got several who had trees through their house, and yet they show up for God’s house,” she said.

She added that she believes it was God’s protection that kept all the members who were inside the church during the tornado safe.

“There was singing, there were prayers. You could hear things being moved in and the roof being torn. Although devastating, God’s hand of protection was on us. Nobody was hurt,” she said.

In a statement shared on its Facebook page Thursday, the Baptist church thanked everyone in the community who offered help. 

“There is absolutely no way ‘we’ Coaltown Baptist Church can ever thank everyone that has helped by donating their time, resources, equipment, skills, meals, etc., during this difficult time. We are more than blessed!” the church said.

“We have seen families and their kids come as far as Tylertown, because they had also lost their home to a tornado, and they wanted to pay it forward. Folks from Baton Rouge, PHS, Sumrall, Lumberton students. Waffle House, Lowes, Bienvenu, Church of Latter Day Saints, Grace Tabernacle, Military Baptist, Nicks Cajun Kitchen, MS Coast Guard, GSA affiliates Josh Carr and Tori Taylor, y'all, the list goes on and on!” the church added. “The love and support we have received means more to us than you will ever know. Thank you, God bless you, and we will rebuild!”

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/church-members-sang-amazing-grace-as-tornado-hit.html