
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308120271
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DINWIDDIE                                LENGTH: Short

AS HOME FELL, CLOSET STOOD BY HER

As Hermine Reames stood in the rubble of the home that was leveled by a tornado, the 98-year-old retired schoolteacher said, "I guess it wasn't my time."

Reames was home alone Friday when the twister demolished her 150-year-old farmhouse but left her without a scratch.

"I was standing in the hall, next to the closet, when the wind blew my front doors open," she said. "I figured that closet was the place to be."

Reames, who walks slowly, said she would not have survived the storm had she not been next to the open closet.

"I was sitting in the kitchen, eating my lunch, when I noticed that it was starting to rain," she said. "I got up and was going to my bedroom to close the window when it hit."

The closet under the stairs was the one place in the home not affected by the whirlwind. Her bedroom was destroyed. Her kitchen and most of the second floor were gone.

The house has been condemned. Reames is staying with neighbors until she can move in with her sister in Ashland. But she doesn't really want to leave.

"This is my home," she said. "I love this place."

by CNB