Monster Tornado

 

 

May 23, 2013 will long be remembered in Moore, Oklahoma as the day when 17 square miles of this city were blown apart by a Force 5 Tornado packing winds of up to 200 miles an hour.

 

The devastation was a mile wide and nearly 17 miles long. “It is amazing anyone survived this,” the Mayor said. Twenty four didn’t including nine children seven of whom perished in an older elementary school which was completely destroyed. Hundreds of people were injured.

 

But scores of children and their teachers did emerge from the wreckage of Plaza Tower Elementary. Several teachers were lying on top of numerous small children as the horrific winds tore through the school.

 

First responders, digging with their hands, were pulling children from the wreckage and handing them to arriving parents and friends who formed a makeshift bucket brigade.

 

One dazed teacher standing outside the debris told a television reporter, “I laid on top of four children huddled in a bathroom. One boy said, ‘are we going to die with you today.’ I shouted "No one is going to die.”

 

She paused and told her interviewer, “I did something I guess I’m not suppose to do as a teacher, I prayed-Lord don’t take these children today.”

 

Nurses at one hospital in the path of the tornado delayed labor for one expectant mother and stayed with her throughout the storm. They transferred her to an undamaged hospital where she safely delivered an eight-pound boy.

 

The medical staff immediately nicknamed the baby Twister. But his grateful mother had the last word and called him Emanuel, which means God with us.

 

From media reports

Moore, Ok.

Baby Catapulted out of van

Week of January 4,2015

                                                      "Watch Out"

 

We are driving home from lunch after church in a driving rain.  As usual, I’m sitting in the back seat of our van beside our six-month old baby, Rachel. She is strapped in her rear facing car seat and is having a serious crying episode.

 

After several minutes of trying to comfort her, I realize that she has a very soiled diaper. No wonder she is screaming. I said to my husband, Bob, who is driving,

 

“Brace Yourself, I’m taking her out of her car seat for a minute to change her diaper.”

 

I place her on the carpeted floor and change her diaper and remove her stained pants. I think I was still leaning over tying the dirty items in a Publix plastic bag when I hear Bob yell, “WATCH Out!”

 

Our van is T-boned, hit right in the back seat driver's side door. The impact busts out the window beside me and sends our van spinning in the middle of the intersection (Bahia Vista and McIntosh. Rd.)

“Oh my God,” we are in a wreck and Rachael is not in her car seat. Glass is raining over both of us.

 

 All I see is little Rachael in mid-air seemingly suspended there for a moment, her bright blue eyes looking right into mine. And then woosh…she sails out the window…floating like a frisbee through the rain…across that intersection landing in a puddle, on her bottom, screaming and crying.

 

I am yelling,, “my  baby, my baby.” My sweet Bob turns around to see about us only to find me pinned in my seat frantically pointing across the road screaming, “Go get her, please. Go get her.”

 

A kind man in a light blue sweater, who sees the accident, gets out of his car to help. He cautions about  not picking her up. Try telling a daddy he can’t pick up his crying  baby who has been thrown 30 feet, landing  inches from the metal base of  a utility pole.

 

Bob says he knew she was “whole” when he put his hands under her to lift her into his arms. The kind man in the blue sweater,  holds a poncho from sea world over Bob and baby and walks them back as I crawl over the front seat and out of the van.

 

The ambulance arrives with the EMT’s who see our baby bleeding from the mouth. They immediately strap her on a back board and take us all to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Several tests are made while we wait three hours for the storm to pass so that Bay Flight can air lift her to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.  Only a patient and flight crew can go in the helicopter. Our pastor drives us to St. Pete.

There are four days of MRI’s, CT scans and other tests. Everyone is amazed there are no broken bones, or internal hemorrhaging.

 

The bleeding from her mouth turned out to be a small glass cut. Doctors and specialist kept coming in and out of Rachel’s room, all amazed and totally not accepting that she is really ok. They all keep telling us that when someone is thrown from a spinning vehicle the ending is always severe injury or death.

 

Finally everyone agrees. this is a miracle.

Bob and I are so thankful that our baby was not seriously injured and following checkups have confirmed she is 100% fine. She truly was touched by an angel.

 

Lesson learned: Don't ever unbuckle your child while

the vehicle is moving.

 

Our baby is now teenager and we look at every day as a true gift. Thank you for reading Rachel’s story and pass it on. Choose to live your life every day to the fullest and with gratitude.  

 

Dundie Crisp                                                                                                                                   

Sarasota, Fl