tornado heroes rd june08

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.


2/12

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


3/12

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.


4/12

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

144 R E A D E R S D I G E S T r d . c o m 0 6 / 0 8

Billy Shelton, Jr., in the ruins

ofhisrestaurant.Hesaysitwas

justlucktohavebeenable

to save hisneighbor.


8/12

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

145


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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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10/12

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.

147


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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

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tornado heroes rd june08

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