God saves 22-member Christian family from fury of powerful tornado that tore apart roof of their Texas home

A Christian university dean is thanking God for saving the lives of 22 members of his family whose house in Texas was one of those directly hit by a killer tornado last weekend.

Dr. Mitch Land, the dean of the School of Communication and the Arts of the Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, said he was in Texas to celebrate the Christmas holidays with his mother, children and grandchildren when the deadly tornado struck, CBN News reported.

Land said he was actually at the airport to pick up family members when the twister hit their home in Rowlett, a suburb of Dallas.

His family later told him how they survived the onslaught of the terrible tornado, one of a series of twisters that struck north Texas after Christmas that killed at least 11 people.

Land said moments before the twister struck, his family "all got inside this hallway...all 22 of them crammed into that space, that is actually between the kitchen and the garage, and they crammed in there and my son-in-law hovered over my 82 year-old (mother) ...and tried to shelter one of his six children."

He said his older grandchildren held on the doors of the garage which were being pried loose by the massive force of the wind. They "just held on for dear life onto those doors. One of them almost got sucked out of the house," he said.

He said the winds tore apart the roof of their home and all the children and their parents could do was to cry out to God to spare them from death.

He said their prayers were answered to their great relief as the twister left with not one of them getting hurt. He said they all gave thanks to God for showing them mercy.

Eight people were killed that weekend when the extremely dangerous EF4 tornado, bearing wind speed of 200 mph (322 kph), struck the city of Garland, blowing vehicles off highways, Reuters reported.

"It is total devastation," Garland Police spokesman Lieutenant Pedro Barineau said. "It is a very difficult time to be struck by such a horrible storm the day after Christmas."

Three other deaths were reported in the Dallas metropolitan area, the fourth most populous metropolis in the U.S. with about 7 million residents. Scores of people were injured and officials estimated that some 800 homes may have been damaged.

Powerful tornadoes are common in central states in the U.S. during spring and summer but occur less frequently in winter, according to U.S. weather data