'The Wire' actor's son, who survived tornado, alive by 'the grace of God'
Teen thrown during Henry County tornado tours destroyed home
Malachi Chaney went back to where he was injured for the first time since being throw hundreds of feet back in May.
LOCUST GROVE, Ga. - The house of ‘The Wire’ actor Tray Chaney and his son, Malachi, is nothing more than a pile of rubble now.
But to a father and son nearly killed when an EF-2 tornado directly hit their house in late May, it's emblematic of a miracle.
"I was really in shock seeing it like this," Malachi Chaney, 18, said.
Losing everything
The backstory:
Actor Tray Chaney and his 18-year-old son Malachi were inside their home in Locust Grove when an EF-2 tornado struck on May 29.
The twister ripped their house, which they built 5 years ago, to shreds and threw Malachi into a field about 300 feet away. He was found unconscious and bleeding, with a traumatic brain injury, broken ribs, and facial fractures.
Tray Chaney was also injured, trapped under bricks and appliances.
The actor said he and his son had been relaxing when the storm hit with little warning.
At first, doctors were not sure if his son would recover.
Twenty-six days after the tornado hit, Malachi returned to the debris with his father to thank the neighbors who rushed to help. He is now on his feet again and nearly ready to remove his neck brace.
What they're saying:
"We're talking about being thrown from here today. And now a walking miracle," Tray Chaney said.
"When I woke up under that house, the first words out of my mouth was, where's my son?" Tray Chaney said.
He said neighbors rushed over the field where his son ended up.
"I had to pause," Curtis Bryant, one of those neighbors, said. "We were listening to make sure he's breathing."
The Chaneys said the neighbors acted heroically.
But the neighbors believe divine intervention played a role in keeping Malachi safe that day.
"It's almost like God placed him right there in that hole in that fetal position, the same way he was probably sleeping," Nic Peebles, another neighbor who helped, added. "I mean it’s nothing short of a miracle."
Return to their destroyed home
They returned to what is left of their home Wednesday evening, thanking the neighbors who ran to help them.
Malachi said it was surreal to return to the house.
"It does make me miss the old house," he said. "But it really just made me thankful for living honestly, by the grace of God."
The family lost all their belongings in the storm, but supporters around the world have raised more than $105,000 online through a GoFundMe.
Moving on
What's next:
Malachi, a rising sophomore at Savannah State University, is following in his father's footsteps and studying theater.
He said he will be ready to return for the fall semester.
The Source: Information for this article came from past reporting by FOX 5's Eric Mock and Digital Team. Rob DiRienzo interviewed Tray and Malachi Chaney at the site of their former house on May 25.