Tornado Heroes RD June08
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Transcript of Tornado Heroes RD June08
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8/14/2019 Tornado Heroes RD June08
1/12OUTOFTHE
In Jackson, Tennessee, Union
University soccerplayer Josh Hanna
(center) andhisteammateskept digging
in the rubblefortheir friendseven
withthethreatofasecondtornado.
Theirstory,onp.149.
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139P H O T O G R A P H E D B Y T A M A R A R E Y N O L D SWRECKAGE
A WAVE OF TORNADOES BRINGSDEATH, DESTRUCTIONANDSELFLESS ACTS OF BRAVERY
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Firefighter David Harmon holds
tight tohis son Cody, 8,in the field where
he found another little boy, Kyson Stowell,
intheearlyhoursofFebruary6.Thishas
been an eye-opening experience forme, says Harmon.
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CLITTLE BOYFOUNDCastalian Springs, TennesseeTwo hours after the tornadoes tore
through town, firefighter David Har-mon, 31, and his partner, Karl Wegner,
made one last pass through a field in
which a young woman had already
been found dead. It was pitch-dark as
the two trudged through the mud,
waving their flashlights. Every so
often, one would call out to the other
when he spotted something.
Ive got a baby stroller over here,
Wegner shouted.
And Ive got a doll,
Harmon called back.
The doll was lying face-
down, arms over its
head and dressed in a
green T-shirt and a
loosened diaper.Then it moved.
Its not a doll! Har-
mon called out again.
As soon as we rolled
him over, he gasped
and started crying, Harmon says. Un-
sure of the extent of the babys in-
juries, he carefully aligned his neckand spine and then cradled him in his
arms. The baby stopped wailing al-
most immediately.
Hang in there, big guy, Harmon
urged. Stay with me.
The baby, who they soon found out
was 11-month-old Kyson Stowell, had
lived nearby with his mother, Kerri,
23, a single parent. That evening, Kerrihad called her parents, who lived
141R E A D E R S D I G E S T r d . c o m 0 6 / 0 8
CHARLESSCOTT/HO/AP
IMAGES
nearby, and told them the TV had
gone dark. The storm is heading your
way, Kay Stowell told her daughter,
and then the line went silent.
We knew something was wrong,
Kerris dad, Douglas, says. He and hiswife navigated their car around fallen
trees and other debris to get to Kerris
home. Once there, they found the
house was gone, and a hundred yards
away, emergency workers were hud-
dling around something. It was the
Stowells grandson. At the sound of
his grandparents voices, he opened
his eyes for the first time.
A worker then asked
Douglas who else had
been in the house, and
it was soon determined
that the victim in the
field was Kerri.
At Vanderbilt Uni-
versity Medical Centerin Nashville, a pediatric
surgeon verified that
Kysons injuries were
relatively minor
incredible given that
the 25-pound child had been hurled
the length of a football field by the
force of the storm. Hes a miracle,says Douglas, who will raise the boy
with his wife.
Kyson celebrated his first birthday
ten days after he was found, and Har-
mon was invited. It was a party filled
with emotion for the boy rescued and
the daughter the Stowells lost. Har-
mon says he wants to stay in the boys
life somehow. Id love to get to knowhim, he says.
Kyson andKerriStowell
were tragically partedwhen
thetornadohittheirhome.
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Itwassuchareliefthatwehadeachother,
says Union University seniorAnika Schulte (left)
of the moment she and fellow nursing student
Candace Crossconnected on campus. Im
kindofanervousperson,shesays,butI
wascalm.Itwascomfortingtoknowthatinadisaster,Icankeepmyhead.
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THECAREGIVERSJackson, TennesseeFor six weekslast year, the senior nursing students
at Union University had practicedtheir emergency medical skills at a
local hospital. And just days before
the tornado struck, they sat through
a class on disaster triage. Still, theyd
never faced anything like the dev-
astation that visited their campus
when the tornado hit that February
evening.
Candace Cross, 21, Anika Schulte,
20, and 12 dormitory mates huddled
in their bathrooms. We were just
praying, says Cross, who is from
Lebanon, Tennessee. When the wind
died down, the shaken students began
to pick their way across the destroyed
campusapproximately 40 percent
of the dorms were wreckedto thePenick Academic Complex.
On the way, Schulte, who is from
Woodbury, Minnesota, spotted a
young woman bleeding heavily from
a gash on her leg. The student nurses
instincts and training kicked in, and
she made sure the woman sat down,
while Cross sprinted to the athleticoffice for an armful of first-aid kits.
The students created a makeshift
triage station. Then Cross began to
make her way down darkened hall-
ways, searching for wounded people.
She cleaned and dressed injuries.
Glass had to be left alone, says Schulte,
because I didnt have enough light to
get it out.Help arrived shortly to care for the
injured. But, as Schulte says, for a
while, we were the best they had.
HELPING HANDSHighland, ArkansasThe lightswent out at the Timberline Restaurant
almost an hour before closing. Man-ager Billy Shelton, Jr., looked out the
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Billy Shelton, Jr., in the ruins
ofhisrestaurant.Hesaysitwas
justlucktohavebeenable
to save hisneighbor.
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front doorand saw a tornado com-
ing straight for him.
The retired Army sergeant quickly
herded seven people, including his
wife, Sharon, into the back room. Sec-
onds later, the twister hit, taking the
dining rooms roof and two walls.
Shelton barely had time to registerthe damage when he saw a woman
fleeing the remains of the house
across the street. She said her elderly
father, Stanley Gamble, was trapped,
and she and her mother, Louise, could
not free him.
Shelton and customer Patrick Loer-
zel climbed the pile of debris. Well
never be able to lift this off him, Shel-ton remembers thinking. But the men
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surprised themselves by dragging
the rubble off. Both husband and
wife got away with just a few broken
bones.
Back at the remains of the Timber-
line, Sheltons customers and staff
were heading out into the night. Callus, he said, when you make it home.
ENDLESS LOVEGreenville, KentuckyThe deadlytornadoes had swept through Green-
ville just days before, and as residents
began to tally their losses, they wore
the stunned looks of the traumatized.But when the bright yellow bus
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pulled up beside the temporary Red
Cross and FEMA stations, parents
and kids alike perked up at the sight of
the portrait on its sidea laughing
baby boy whos giving the thumbs-
up sign.
Mommy, yelled one youngster, Iwant to go on the bus with the happy
boy! Inside, the kids descended on
arts and crafts, DVDs, and games
anything to distract them from the
nightmare memories of howling winds
and falling trees.
Its incredible, says Kathryn Mar-
tin, 29, who had driven the bus morethan 70 miles, from Evansville, Indi-
147
Whenshehelpedoutinahard-hit
area, parents kept thanking her, says
KathrynMartin,herewithKevin
Esche,designer of hermobile
day-care center. But Martin, who
lostherownsoninatornado,told
them, You dontknow what
thismeanstome.
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ana. They just go off into la-la land;
they can be kids again.
The mobile day-care center is
named for Martins little boy, C.J., who
was killed along with two other fam-
ily members when a tornado struck
their town in 2005. He was two yearsold. The idea of helping other twister
victims came to her in May 2006, after
a tornado blasted Otwell, Indiana. Mar-
tin and a friend headed to the scene,
and she spent the day with a family
who had lost their home, soothing the
kids simply by coloring with them.
From then on, says Martin, who
is married with three children, weknew we had to do something.
After donations of more than
$120,000, C.J.s Bus was launched in
August 2007 and two months later
made its maiden voyage to Owens-
boro, Kentucky, for tornado relief.
Martin says she can think of no
greater legacy for her son than to helpchildren recover from the trauma of
a tornado. This bus is not about me,
and its not about C.J. anymore, she
says. Its about those next people
were going to help.
THE GOOD SONHolland, KentuckyShirley Ennis,58, said good night to her son Jerry,
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Its cold under
here, but I can breathe,
Shirley Ennis reassured
rescuerswho discovered
hertrapped beneath
hermobile home. With
hersonJerry, right.
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32, and turned in for the evening. They
were safe, it seemed; a tornado warn-
ing had been canceled at 1:30 a.m.
At 2 a.m., however, 160 mph winds
hit the tiny farming community, pick-
ing up the Ennises double-wide mo-bile home and tossing it into a gully
50 yards away. His leg broken, Jerry
pulled himself from the rubble. But
his mother was pinned under the
wreckage of the house.
Dragging his leg behind him, Jerry
found a pair of two-by-fours and cre-
ated makeshift crutches. He hobbled
to his 2003 Chevy Silverado in the
driveway. Though most of its windows
were blown out, the engine miracu-
lously came to life.
A fallen power line stopped Jerry
as he made his way slowly toward
town, but firefighter Rickey Cooksey
spotted him and offered assistance.
My moms down there in the trailer,Jerry gasped. You have to help her.
Dont worry about me.
Cooksey and a group of emergency
workers headed toward the gully,
quickly locating Shirley. Its cold
under here, but I can breathe, she
said. Two airbags were inflated to lift
the wooden trailer frame off her, andthe rescuers slid her to safety.
Jerry is the hero, says Ed Taylor,
the paramedic who drove him to the
hospital. His only request was to find
his mother right away.
Shirley is made of pretty tough stuff
herself. As soon as shes completely
recoveredshe has several broken
bonesshe hopes to return home.After all, the cows need tending.
TEAM EFFORTJackson, TennesseeUnion Uni-versity varsity soccer player Josh
Hanna (pictured on page 139) was at
home in his off-campus apartmentwhen he heard what sounded like a
freight train roaring by. Minutes later,
the phone rang. Union just got hit,
his sister told him.
Hanna shot over to the stricken cam-
pus and spent an hour searching for
survivors. Then he heard that a group
of studentsincluding his former
roommates and some soccer players
were trapped in the rubble of the Wat-
ters Residential Complex, where he
had lived the previous semester.
Emergency workers had arrived on
the scene but couldnt get their heavy
equipment into the collapsing build-
ing. The firefighters formed a bucket
brigade, which Hanna and his team-mates joined, passing slabs of cement,
Sheetrock, and gravel away from the
scene. Some pieces took 15 guys to
lift, Hanna says.
At 7:46 p.m., a siren wailed
another tornado might be on the way.
Not one volunteer abandoned his
place. Two men were eventually pulledout. A couple of hours later, one of
Hannas teammates was found, and
then another. By 1:30 a.m., six students
had been pulled out alive.
Although there were nine serious
injuries on campus, there were no
fatalities. All I did, says Hanna, was
what I thought was right.
Reported by Tara Conry, Fran Lostys,Bridget Nelson Monroe
149