A grandmother says a tornado carried away her two infant grandchildren in a bathtub but they survived relatively unscathed.
Clara Lutz says that when the deadly tornado reached her neighborhood in Hopkins County in Kentucky, she put Kaden, 15-month-old, and Dallas, 3-month-old, in the bathtub.
The bathtub was filled with a blanket, pillow, and a Bible, in an effort to protect the infants from the tornado. The house then started shaking and Mrs. Lutz couldn’t hold on to the bathtub anymore.
She was hit in the head by the water tank from the bath as it was ripped from the floor and her house ended up stripped to its foundations.
She told WFIE-TV: “I put 15-month-old Kaden and 3-month-old Dallas in the bathtub last Friday with a blanket, a pillow, and a bible when the tornado attacked the house in Hopkins. Hopkins Country started shaking and I was hit by the water tank in the back of my head.”
“All I could say was, “Lord please bring my babies back safely. Please, I beg thee,” she said.
Two sheriff deputies and two community members were out in the wreckage to help find the missing babies and while they are searching through the debris, they found the upturned bathtub in Mrs. Lutz’s yard with the boys underneath and still dry from the rain.
Authorities from the sheriff’s office drove to the end of her driveway and reunited her with the two children. Deputy Troy Blue said: “I just heard the sound of crying or screaming coming from a distance.”
The deputy call and seek for help and two persons came, two of the men lifted the bathtub, while Deputy Trent Arnold and another man pulled the babies from the tub.
Mrs. Lutz said that Dallas had a big bump on the back of his head and had to go to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville because his brain was bleeding, but the bleeding stopped before she got to the hospital.
Bodycam footage from the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office revealed the moment where the babies were found and returned to their grandmother.
Lutz said that the parents of the children live on the north end of the county and their home was nearly untouched by the tornado. Deputy Arnold says he feels the grandmother’s preparation helped save the baby’s life.
He said: “The actions that the grandmother took in placing the blankets and the pillows, all of that stuff around those kids, I think that may have been what made the difference.”
90 people have been confirmed dead across multiple states after more than 40 tornadoes pummeled a wide area last weekend.
The governor said his staff believes there are an additional three deaths and that all of the people reported missing in the state after such a tornado outbreak have been accounted for.