Huddled in the basement of the one-story Carroll County home, Erin Key and her mom heard the storm rip off the roof — sending the brick chimney through the ceiling of the laundry room.

"It didn't sound like a freight train," said Key, 19. "It was more like a constant roar."

She was asleep on her mom's couch about 3:30 a.m. Sunday when she heard the storm tear through Bowdon.

A day later, Key and her mom, Janie Hunnings, 43, sifted through the debris — a T-shirt wedged in the rafters of the attic, a high school yearbook lodged in a tree 50 yards away.

Caroll County called off school Monday in the wake of the storm.

At Hunnings' house on West Johnsonville Road, Janie Hunnings was feeling grateful.

"The best Mother's Day present I got is that both of my kids are OK," she said. "We're here. We're alive. We'll get through it."