Miracles do happen
It’s Saturday morning and I’m surfing the web, I found this article on our local Channel 9 news channel website that brought absolute joy and gratefulness to my heart, but at the same time complete sadness. So, I thought I’d share…
In Castalian Springs, Tenn., authorities are still marveling at finding 11-month-old Kyson Stowell alive, lying face down in the mud and 150 yards from where his home once stood.
“It looked like a baby doll,” said David Harmon, a firefighter who had already combed the field once looking for survivors. “He was laying there motionless … and he took a breath of air and started crying.”
The body of the boy’s mother was found in the same field.
The child was discharged from a hospital Thursday and was in the care of his grandparents.
The extent of the damage was still being tallied Thursday in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, two days after the storms.
The death toll in Tennessee’s Macon County now stands at 14, Macon County Mayor Shelvy Linville told CNN.
Of the 59 people killed, 34 of those were in Tennessee. The deaths also include 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and five in Alabama, emergency officials said.
Tornadoes pulled houses from foundations, pummeled mobile homes and collapsed warehouses.
Residents are preparing to tackle cleanup in the five states ravaged by the nation’s deadliest set of twisters in more than two decades.
Emergency teams, utility workers and insurance representatives streamed into five southern states hard-hit by tornadoes earlier in the week.
Officials were only beginning to tally how much the tornadoes would cost.
President George W. Bush will travel to Tennessee Friday to assess damage and try to comfort residents.
Offering federal support, he said, “Prayers can help and so can the government.”
“Our administration is reaching out to state officials,” Bush said Wednesday, adding that he spoke with the governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. “I wanted them to know that this government will help them; but more importantly, I wanted them to be able to tell the people in their states that the American people hold them up and — hold those who suffer up in prayer. This was a bad storm that affected a lot of people in a variety of states.”
Rescue crews have moved door to door to find victims of Tuesday night’s twisters. They were unleashed by a storm that swept through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. Teams from Federal Emergency Management Agency have been sent to the region and activated an emergency center in Georgia.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen surveyed the damage from a helicopter and said, “It looks like the Lord took a Brillo pad and scrubbed the ground.”
A company spokesman said no one was killed in a huge explosion at a natural gas pumping plant in Tennessee.
The Nisource Gas Transmission spokesman said no one was working at the plant Tuesday night when it erupted in flames. He said a tornado likely hit the plant, causing the fire.
About 200 yards from the edge of the gas plant, Bonnie and Frank Brawner picked through the rubble of their home for photographs and other personal items. The storm sheared off the second story of the home and the remaining ceiling over the first floor was partially caved in.
“We had a beautiful neighborhood, now it’s hell,” said Bonnie Brawner, 80.
The nearby Castilian Springs post office was destroyed, and there was one confirmed death, WSMV-TV in Nashville reported.
