Sanford, N.C. — Of all the images from the 2011 tornado outbreak in central and eastern North Carolina, perhaps the most iconic were those from the Lowe's Home Improvement store in Sanford. The Lee County store's roof was ripped off, and walls of the massive building had collapsed – one of them on a truck with a man inside. Mike Hollowell was a manager at the store that day. Before the storms arrived, he was helping a customer in home decor. "It was a busy Saturday," Hollowell recalls. "April is our busiest time of the year." Outside, clouds had gathered, signaling the approach of a line of storms that would take lives across the region. Lowe's employee Ray Allen said he knew of only one thing to do once people realized the tornado was closing in – run. "I never looked back. I just kept going. It felt like it was right on the back of my heels," Allen said. Hollowell had warned customers on the store's intercom, and he and other employees rushed everyone into windowless offices and break room in the back of the store.

One of the customers was Aubrey Cox, who was shopping with his brother and 5-year-old nephew. "(My brother) threw my nephew on my back, and he jumped on me, and we just rode the storm out," Cox said. "The last thing I remember is looking up, and I could hear a popping noise. It was sucking the roof off. Lenovo T61 Laptop BagLoudest thing I ever heard in my life."House For Sale Bullville Ny Others said the tornado sounded like a jet engine.Home Depot Crown Vertical Blinds "Everyone, at that point, was screaming, because at that point, you don't know if you're going to live or die," Hollowell said. Employee Ashley Deyo said she remembers crouching down and holding a friend's hand. "I got down like we learned in elementary school," she said.

After the storm did its damage, the deafening sounds were replaced with deafening silence. "It was like an eerie silence," Hollowell said. "No one made a sound because it was like, what do we do now?" An assistant manager soon began digging into a mound of debris. He found a man in a pickup truck crushed by a falling wall near the lumber section. The man wasn't hurt seriously – a staggering fact that also applied to the other 100 or so people inside the store at the time. "The good Lord was with us, that's all I know," Allen said. Days after the storm, President Barack Obama called Hollowell to thank him for the actions that likely saved lives. Hollowell said it was an honor to speak with the president. "Definitely, my team was very proud of that. It wasn't anything I did that day, it was what the team did," he said. Hollowell has since moved to a Lowe's store in Knightdale, but the store in Sanford was reopened five months after the storm. Many of the store's employees are still there, including Ashley Deyo.

"Before when I was here, it felt like just a job and I just work here. But when I came back, it felt like true friendships were built, and a lot of relationships became stronger," she said. A symbol of that mindset still flies outside the store – an American flag draped above the entrance was pulled from the rubble on the day the tornado rolled through. Published on April 7th, 2015 | When people make purchases at home improvement stores (Lowe’s, Ace, etc etc) they are usually quite large – which is why it’s important to try and use credit cards that earn at a high rate at these stores. Below is a list of cards that earn category bonuses on home improvement stores, we’ve split them into personal and business cards (also apologies to the reader who originally asked for this, sorry it took so long! I’ve forgotten who you are, so I haven’t e-mailed you this but hopefully you read it anyway). Contents1 Personal Cards Huntington Voice 3% Cash Back Honorable Mentions Chase Freedom – 5% In Rotating Categories Discover it – 5% In Rotating Categories Citi Dividend – 5% In Rotating Categories2 Business Cards3 Cards We Didn’t Include Lowe’s Credit Card – 5% Discount/6 Month Financing/One time 10% Discount Home Depot Credit Card – No Interest For Six Months4 Final Thoughts

The Huntington Voice credit card lets you choose your own 3% cash back categories. One of the categories you’re able to choose is home improvement stores. The card has no annual fee, but your limited to $2,500 in spending per quarter in that category ($60 cash back) so for those making a lot of purchases this wouldn’t be a very good choice. You can also get an extra 10% cash back on all rewards earned (making this a 3.3% cash back card), if you have a Huntington 5 or 25 checking account open. Although the fees on these accounts make this bonus not really make sense. More on this bonus here. The Chase Freedom card earns 5% cash back in rotating categories that change quarterly (maximum spend of $1,500). Home improvement stores have been a 5% category in 2013, 2014 & again in 2015 all in the second quarter. The downside to a card like this is that you won’t be able to use it for unexpected purchases in Q1, Q3 or Q4. Much like the Chase Freedom card mentioned above, the Discover it also earns 5% cash back in rotating categories (with the same $1,500 spending limit per quarter).

Home improvement stores were a 5% category in 2011, 2012, 2014 in Q2 and will probably be part of the Q3 promotion for 2015. You might be noticing a theme here, but the Citi Dividend also offers 5% cash back in rotating categories. There is one slight difference though and that’s the fact that you can spend up to $6,000 per year in these quarters (rather than being limited to $1,500 per quarter). Home depot is a 5% category for Q2 in 2015. It’s not possible to apply for this card directly, but you can downgrade an existing Citi card to this product (this card was removed from direct applications when the Citi Double Cash card was introduced). I don’t currently know of any credit cards that earn a category bonus on home improvement stores, prove me wrong in the comments. Apart from the major disadvantage of only being a discount at Lowe’s, the biggest problem with this card is that if you used any coupons or discounts you won’t get the 5% discount this card offers.

It’s always possible to get a 10% discount with the Lowe’s movers coupon, so using this card does not make sense. If you make a purchase for $299 or more, you can get it interest free for six months. Obviously this has the same pitfalls as the Lowe’s card as well and doesn’t offer any real rewards program apart from this special financing. There really aren’t a lot of credit cards that specifically target home improvement stores. Instead what I’d recommend is that you either buy gift cards to stores that you want to shop at from a gift card reseller (use giftcardgranny to see the rates they offer). If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can purchase the giftcards yourself from a store where you do have a category bonus (e.g if you have a card that earns 5% cash back at grocery stores, you could purchase gift cards to Lowe’s there). Here is a full list of all the credit cards that earn 5% cash back or more and below are links to what the best credit cards are for other categories: