WATERPROOF &045; It came a few minutes after 1 a.m. Sunday, when Jim Funderburg was sound asleep.

The freight train was passing near the house, growing louder and louder by the moment. Only there aren’t any train tracks near the Funderburgs’ house just west of Waterproof, and this wasn’t a freight train.

It only sounded like one.

&uot;I woke up and it sounded like a freight train, but I know what tornadoes sound like,&uot; Funderburg said.

The tornado, spun off from the remnants of

Hurricane Rita, was heading straight for Jim and his wife Jane.

&uot;I woke up and my wife wasn’t in bed and I realized the house was levitating. The house came up and bounced about three times,&uot; Jim said. &uot;When I realized what was happening, I put a pillow over my face and held on to the sides of the bed. Then it just went deathly silent.&uot;

Jane had gone to the let dog out and went to the bathroom before heading back to bed just as the tornado hit.

&uot;We could feel the house move, but it wasn’t violent, just like someone was lifting it up,&uot; Jane said.

The Funderburgs survived with little more than bumps and bruises, but their house and a local church weren’t so lucky.

The tornado first dropped down about a mile south of the Funderburgs’ house on Miller Road. It destroyed St. Mark’s Baptist Church on Lousiana 566, throwing the wooden building off its foundation and leaving little but a mound of rubble in its wake.

It jumped north and followed a low slough straight to the Funderburgs’ place, ripping leaves and limbs off the trees it didn’t simply knock over.

The Funderburg house, which the couple bought in 2000, will have to torn down.

The main part of the house was pulled off its brick foundations and sits at a slope. The roof is gone from most of the building, and wind and rain destroyed much of the couple’s belongings inside.

Most impressive to Jim was the assistance he’s already received from community members, almost 20 of which showed up to help clean Sunday without even being asked.

&uot;It’s been overwhelming, the spontaneous outpouring of support we’ve received,&uot; Jim said. &uot;They showed up in their jeans and their work gloves and didn’t even have to be told what to do. They just started working.&uot;

The help also included the couple’s sons, Steven and Jim, who came in from Jackson and New Orleans to help and son-in-law Scott Lassiter from Kettle, who brought a trailer with living quarters.

Jim said it’s too early to know what he will do with the property.

He owns hunting land in Tensas Parish, so the Funderburgs will stay in the area in some way.

&uot;We’ll still have a presence here, that much I know,&uot; Jim said. &uot;Whether we’ll just build a hunting lodge here and have a house somewhere else or if we’ll rebuild, I just don’t know yet.&uot;