(WHTM) — Twenty years ago on Sunday, July 14, a Midstate community came under attack when an F3 tornado hit Campbelltown, Lebanon County.

Within moments, the fast moving F3 tornado roars through Campbelltown. The storm left people injured and houses destroyed.

Derry Township Police Chief Garth Warner and his wife Michelle are two of the survivors. Warner was woken up by his k9 jet just as the storm hit. He looked outside and realized, “That’s not normal. Something’s going on. And for some reason, at that point,” he said.

He heard his wife Michelle yelling for him.

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“She was at the bottom of the stairs with two girls, and I could tell she was concerned,” Garth said “And, you know, she said, something’s wrong here.”

Warner got to his wife and their two young children and they scrambled to find safety.

“The next thing I know, the windows are just being sucked out of the house,” Garth said. “They weren’t even like blowing in. They were being sucked out. She hit she hit the ground on top of McKenzie. And I grabbed Madison. I went to grab her by the waist. And that’s when it just it’s like a bomb went off. I mean, something I can tell something hit the house and everything went black. my initial thought was that the house just exploded.”

Their house was gone.

“We were actually back in the yard here, probably about halfway out to the fence in the backyard, and we stood up,” Garth said.

“I went to go out my front door,” Michelle said. “There is no front door. Just then they came up together. Madison had two huge black eyes. Garth is bleeding all down his face.”

Debris pilled around them. Thankfully, they all survived, including k9 Jet and two other pets.

In time, this strong community made a comeback.

“We built the exact same house, you know, with the front porch,” Michelle said. “We put a porch on the front. That’s the only difference.”

A fresh start-though the traumatic memories of that day still linger.

“Not even a year ago is I actually talked to a professional about it and try to piece my way through and my feelings, which really, really helped a lot,” Garth said. “And I can’t stress that enough when you get through an event like that. I thought that was the end. But I survived through it. But still, there’s all those different things, emotions, mental things that you deal with.”

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