“Next thing I knew, the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands,” Lutz said
Clara Lutz was watching her grandchildren—15-month-old Kaden and 3-month-old Dallas—over the weekend, when she got notified that their town was about to be hit by a tornado. In a bid to keep the children safe, she placed them in the bathtub, along with just a blanket, a pillow, and a Bible.
The house in Hopkins County then started shaking vigorously, she told ABC News. “Next thing I knew, the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands,” Lutz said. "I couldn’t hold on. I just – oh my God.” Not only was everything around her dark, but the tub’s water tank also hit her in the head amidst the chaos. Despite the pain, she frantically kept searching for her grandchildren.
“I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be. I had no clue at all where these babies were. All I could say was ‘Lord, please bring my babies back to me safely. Please, I beg thee,’” she told 14 News.
Two babies survived a tornado in Kentucky last weekend that ripped the bathtub they were sheltering in out of the ground and tossed it with them inside, their grandmother says. https://t.co/VV1RoZQk7U
— ABC News (@ABC) December 20, 2021
Soon, first responders arrived at the scene and began helping the local residents. That's when the officers discovered the bathtub with the children inside. “I just heard the sound of crying or screaming coming from a distance,” said Deputy Troy Blue. Two of the men lifted the bathtub, while Deputy Trent Arnold and another man pulled the babies from the tub. They then informed the worried grandmother.
“I got in the sheriff’s car down at the end of my driveway, and it wasn’t long after that that they opened up the door and brought me Kaden, my 15-month-old. And they brought me my three-month-old, baby Dallas. They brought him to me. He had a goose egg on the back of his head, we didn’t know what was wrong,” Lutz said.
They rushed to the hospital where they found that Dallas had some internal bleeding but was okay. He was taken to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville because of his brain bleed, but the bleeding stopped before Lutz got to the hospital, she said.
“I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be. I had no clue at all where these babies was. All I could say was ‘Lord, please bring my babies back to me safely. Please, I beg thee." https://t.co/DAT4kjGonT
— wave3news (@wave3news) December 21, 2021
Arnold says he feels the grandmother’s preparation helped save the babies’ lives. “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,” said Arnold.
As for the grandmother, she is just grateful that the children are alive, and that's all that matters to her, irrespective of the damages that the tornado caused her house.
References:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/babies-survive-tornado-carried-bathtub-81844480
https://www.14news.com/2021/12/17/2-babies-survive-after-tornado-carries-them-away-bathtub/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Scott Olson
