New London church employee recalls moments she was inside when steeple collapsed

Demolition has wrapped up at the historic church in New London that came crashing down last week.

Now, we’re hearing from the lone person inside the building when it came down.

Teresa Tymes, administrator for Engaging Heaven Church, said she was inside her office in the church’s annex at the time.

“It was just a regular Thursday afternoon,” she said Friday. “I just heard a loud wind sound, like a whooshing.”

But it wasn’t the wind. It was the church’s center steeple collapsing. She said she left her office after hearing chatter outside.

“I come out of my office, and there’s people at the courthouse. They got their phones out. I was like, what is happening? They’re like, ‘the building’s falling down! Get out of the building!’ I’m like, it’s New London, they’re being dramatic,” she said.

She then went back inside the building to see what happened.

“In my head I’m thinking, 'OK, they’re being dramatic. I’ve got a hole somewhere. Let me go check the sanctuary.' So I walk back into my office and I walk to the sanctuary, which is five feet away, and I open the door and I was like, 'Oh, okay. That’s a bigger hole.'”

It didn’t hit her right away that the steeple had collapsed. She walked around to another part of the building and saw nearby students outside, too.

“The kids from the college were standing on their walkway and they’re looking at me, and I’m looking at them, and we’re looking at the rubble and I was like 'OK.' That’s what I say when I’m processing things."

The fire department then showed up, and ordered her out of the building. Tymes grabbed her purse and cell phone, and went outside to see the damage, in awe that she made it out.

“My joke is that I say that I’m the Lord’s favorite, that he really loves me, and that I’m the favorite,” Tymes said. “Because, literally, my office is less than five feet from the sanctuary. If the wind wound have shifted any other way, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

Tymes said the congregation is still going strong, and while they lost their building, they didn’t lose their church community.

“I had a moment [on Thursday night], I was standing on the side by the post office and I looked, and I was just like…'Honestly, I broke out into song and I sang ‘How Great Thou Art’' because, even in the midst of this, God is still good. Even in the midst of this, I know that I was protected, and he has a purpose and a plan for my life.”

Her first thought that Thursday night was how they’d put on their meal program the next day. The church hosts a free breakfast every weekday morning. But Friday morning, breakfast went on without missing a beat, thanks to New London police officers who delivered breakfast sandwiches.

Breakfast is continuing at the Salvation Army around the corner from the church.

Tymes believes that’s why she survived, to continue helping others.

“I don’t feel like I have a new lease on life. I feel like I have a new determination that I need to do all that I’ve been called to do," Tymes said.