Surviving a Tornado: One Member's Story

Tornadoes are a fascination for some and a source of fear for others.  No one knows this better than Brett and Jennifer Williams.  Brett is the Materials Control Manager at American Foodservice in Tennessee and he recently experienced the sheer force of a tornado first hand.

Brett and his wife, Jennifer, were at their church on Tuesday evening, February 5th, editing a video of a recent service.   Jennifer was six months pregnant at the time.  The weather had been bad all evening but as Jennifer watched for updates online it seemed that the worst of the storms were hitting farther north.  Just as Brett wrapped up his editing and asked if they should go home, a loud noise started to come from the roof.  Brett moved to look outside, believing he would see hail which would have accounted for the noise.  Instead he saw the wind blowing curtains of water across the parking lot.  As he looked outside, the church doors were sucked inward by 2-3 inches, just before being blown back out.  “I could feel that there was fresh air rushing into the building. There were two projection screens that were blowing outward, when they shouldn’t have been moving at all,” Brett explained.

Noticing that something was wrong, Brett and Jennifer immediately moved to the western edge of the worship center to protect themselves as best as possible, away from the video and electronic equipment and the stage.  They crouched together and almost immediately the false ceiling started to fall around them.  It was then that Brett realized that the roof of the church was already gone.  As the opening above them grew, Brett could see the air and wind swirling above the church.  As the two clung together they were pulled across the carpet about twenty feet.  The chairs began to pile on top of them, burying them as they crouched.  The wind was deafening but they were still able to hear each other enough to provide comfort.

Although it felt much longer because so much happened, the whole thing only lasted about 20 seconds.  However, Brett and Jennifer were now trapped between chairs and ruble and unable to move.  It wasn’t clear how deep they were buried, but Brett noticed that miraculously Jennifer still clung to her cell phone.

After calling 911, emergency crews arrived quickly and by directing workers with yells and the light of the cell phone, they were uncovered within fifteen minutes from the edge of the pile.   They both were able to walk away from the area.  They were taken to the hospital, but they both escaped the tornado with only minor bumps and bruises, and even more importantly, the baby was fine.  “I realized just how fortunate we were to have been on the edge of the auditorium. If we had stayed in the editing room, we would have been thrown across the room with the rest of the debris. As it was, we were buried under only about six chairs.”

The tornado that hit Hardin county Tennessee was categorized as an EF-4 with winds reaching up to 170 mph at its height and it had a trail 15 miles long of destruction and ½ mile wide at its greatest width.  Tornadoes broke out all over the state that night and across the Midwest.

When Brett and Jennifer returned the following morning to examine the church campus, which consisted of five buildings, it was an awe inspiring site.  All of the buildings were demolished and the Williams’ car was piled on top of a mound where the worship center was standing just 24 hours before.  “I was amazed at where we had just been and how little protection there was around us. Hundreds of pounds of steel were piled up in the area along with large chunks of A/V and computer equipment,” Brett described.

Now, three months later, plans are underway to begin constructing the church again.  The congregation has been temporarily using space at the high school and other churches to continue meetings and classes.  “The support of the community and churches have been awesome!” Brett said.  Brett’s own family continues to do well also as they prepare for their new baby due on May 19th.

 Looking back on the ordeal Brett explains how they made it through, “For me, it was being calm and thinking about what was going on around me rationally, that and prayer.”

To see more pictures and videos of the damage visit the links below:

1. Jackson Sun article: Three killed in Hardin County
2. Truveo Video: Sharon Baptist Church Tornado
3. Baptist Press: Pastor surveys rubble where church stood