SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. — According to KFSM, a Siloam Springs home was torn to pieces by Monday morning's tornado.
The room that protected a mother and her young children was the only room in the home left unscathed.
The roof of the home was completely torn away. The home's stone walls are the only thing left standing.
The family inside told 5NEWS they built the home less than two years ago.
Rachel Smith and her two kids were the only ones inside the home when the tornado hit. Her husband was out of town.
In just moments, nearly everything had crumbled around them.
"We planned this house for a long time, we weren't here very long, but it's just stuff, it's just stuff, we're safe, and that's all that matters," Smith said.
Smith said her family took shelter immediately after she was woken up by an alert on her phone.
Hugging her young sons for dear life, Smith said she hoped and prayed the walls of the closet would hold.
"We were praying, there was a lot of praying," Smith said.
The tornardo has since been categorized as an EF-2, according to the National Weather Service.
"The master wall fell in on the bed, the living room wall had fallen in, the roof on the other side of the house over one of the boy's rooms is completely gone," Smith explained. "It's just amazing the power, and just how quickly this kind of destruction can happen."
After what she describes felt like centuries, the storm settled, and the next-door neighbors came over to help out.
"I always thought a tornado would be really fast and come in and out, and everything gets quiet after, but I felt like it was chaos," Smith said.
Smith said her closet doesn't seem like just a closet anymore, but a room she firmly believes saved her family's life.
"That and God. That's all I really know how to put it," Smith said.
Smith, friends, and family have spent the following days gathering what they can before storms approach again this weekend.