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After suffering loss of their own, LaGrange church offers sanctuary to those escaping Irma

Stop lights swayed. Rain came down at an angle. But this church opened opened its doors.

LAGRANGE, Ga. -- Stop lights swayed. Rain came down at an angle.

They don't get many storms like this in Troup County.

The community right on the border of the Alabama state line got the brunt of the storm in the early.

"They told me 'bout the trees falling in other places," said Billy O'Neal, who lives in LaGrange.

In this kind of weather, there's no playbook for what to do as a church. So this church made one.

"We've prepared for anywhere from 50 to 100 people," said Teaver Road Baptist Church's pastor Ben Turner. "Food items have been brought in by church members."

Monday afternoon, residents trickled into Teaver Road, though they don't know what they'll find later at home. O'Neal, who'll be 90 in just a two months, was one of them.

"We got a lot of trees out there. And I was afraid of 'em might fall and I couldn't get out of there," he told 11Alive's Matt Pearl. "So that's what brought me here."

No one asked Teaver Road Baptist Church to do it. But the know how to brace for the worst.

"Five years ago, 2012, we lost our sanctuary to a fire, started by an electrical fault,” Turner said. The cross in front is all that remains standing.

“I’m here day in and day out with the people that lost 40 years’ worth of memories,” he continues.

Turner worked that day as a state trooper. Now he's the pastor. But while the church is building back, it's not waiting to give back.

“There’s a group of people here who are resilient, are proud of what they’ve been blessed with," Turner said. "Most importantly, it’s their desire to still serve others, like today, opening what we have to other people.”

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