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Subscribe to RSSThe storms that tore through North Texas produced not only destruction but some amazing stories of survival, including one babysitting grandmother who clutched her 18-month-old grandson as the wind tried to tear him away.
"It just felt like it was trying to just take him, you know just actually take him from me," Sherry Enochs of Forney told WFAA-TV as she held her grandson Lane. "I clutched him as hard as I could."
"She held onto his feet -- just by his feet -- and the wind kept taking him, but she hung onto him," her daughter Lindsey Enochs added in an interview with WFAA-TV.
Sherry Enochs was babysitting her grandson and two other children when "I looked through the back glass of my bedroom window and saw the tornado coming."
She grabbed the children and huddled with them in a bathtub.
The tornado destroyed the home, and tore through dozens of other ones in Forney.
Sherry Enochs started screaming and a passerby helped her out of the debris.
Tony Gutierrez / AP
Sherry Enochs of Forney, Texas, fights back tears on Wednesday as she recounts the twister that destroyed her home and almost killed her and three infants.
"One of the little boys was walking around there in the backyard," she added, "and how he got there I don't know."
Lane was untouched and the worst injury was a scratch to one of the boys.
'Sounded like a bomb' at nursing home
In Arlington, a twister tore through part of a nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy saw it coming through the back door.
She had just finished herding dozens of patients into the hallway, The Associated Press reported, when "it sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking."
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck says he saw "so many miracles" during his tour of his storm-damaged town.
The blast of wind lasted about 10 seconds, she said, adding that a co-worker was nearly "sucked out" while trying to get a patient out of the room.
Joy Johnston was visiting her 79-year-old sister at the time. "The windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," NBCDFW.com quoted her as saying. "It was terribly loud."
Children herded to safety at school
In Lancaster, the pastor of Cedar Valley Christian Academy herded more than 30 daycare children -- including some newborns -- into a windowless room when he saw debris swirling, NBCDFW.com said.
Tim Sharp / Reuters
At the church's school, about 60 more children also took shelter in a windowless room.
An entire wall of the school was destroyed.
Pastor Glenn Young said he didn't know when the school might reopen. "I'm a little concerned," he added. "This is our livelihood."
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I wonder how many insurance companies will get cold feet and try to abandon policies in Texas for being in a "tornado prone area", kind of like how they did here in Florida a few years ago?
Get this, I recently got in the mail a notice that my car insurance was going up due to a "Hurricane Fund"! Even though this is the same car I'll be driving away from a storm if it heads this way.
Allstate could not give me one reason why, but after the costliest year ever in 2011 regarding natural disasters, I completely understand why they raised my homeowners insurance and 3 auto policies about 34% when I renewed in January. Not one thing changed in my status (same job, same house, same drivers in the house, nearly identical credit score, blah blah blah, etc...).
I pulled a Texas Grandma and rebuked the storm - making it go away empty handed (I switched insurance companies & got my same rate I had with Allstate last year).
I learned my lesson in regards to Allstate back in the 50's. Their rates beat what I had been paying by about 30%, that is until my check cleared and they wanted that 30% plus another 30% or they would cancel my policy. I paid it and then the following year changed insurance companies.
We often hear the words "heroism" and "courage" However, it is exceptional when an ordinary grandmother, not knowing if she is going to survive, uses sheer willpower...with love as her only weapon... to face down a tornado and rescue a child.
Texas grandma 1, tornado 0 -- which all goes to show -- don't mess with a Texas grandma --
seriously, God bless her and the family -- prayers for all those not too far north of us who suffered through the tornadoes --
Thank goodness no one was killed or seriously injured. Happy to read grandma prevailed.
First Helen Colins, 80 yesterday bringing that Cesna in(never flown a plane before) and now Sherrie Enochs saving her grand-son...been a very good week for grandmas...go grandmas! Mother's day is just around the cornner-or maybe two cornners.
Mother nature, your in a battle when you start messing with Grand-ma's. Good going Grandma!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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May God bless those in Texas who were affected.
It is amazing they all survived. But was there a basement or tornado shelter? The home was built in North Texas and the surrounding houses look newer.
Good to hear that occasionally you can take on Mother nature and win...saw the trucks flying thru the air here in Australia on TV...could not believe it...think your tornadoes are one of the most terrifying things that wander this earth. Blessings to all that have been affected.
i know how the grandma feels. eighteen years ago, i saw a tornado come down the parking lot of our apartment complex. it believe it was an F-2. but our patio/balcony door was opened, including the screen, and it could have sucked up everything in our apartment but it didn't. i froze, not knowing what to do. the sound is indeed like that of several trains coming. it was three o'clock in the day but when the tornado came, it looked like midnight. i looked into the eye. i don't think i'll ever forget that day. then the sun came out as if nothing happened, just reddish-brown water running down the parking lot.
Sort of like when Moses asked, "...shew me thy glory..."