The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long recovery ahead for some in path of deadly tornadoes
Residents in a swath of the central U.S. hit by deadly tornadoes were cleaning up, assessing damage and helping neighbors on Saturday. But it will be a long recovery from the storms that ripped through parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas.
Thursday night’s storms claimed three lives in the Indian Lake area of Ohio’s Logan County, one of the hardest-hit regions, and about 40 people were injured and dozens of homes damaged in one Indiana community. Tornadoes were also reported in Illinois and Missouri.
Samantha Snipes, 33, said that when she first heard the tornado warning, she called her father who lives seven minutes away and told him to take cover. He said he was trying get into the closet in her childhood home and then the phone cut out, she told The Associated Press.
She and her husband attempted to drive down the main road to get to him but couldn’t and had to get through the back way after the tornado passed.
“It looked like out of a movie, like ‘Twister’” she said. “My dad’s garage was leveled. The back of his house is gone. Like everything’s gone.”
They climbed over everything screaming for him. When they found him, he wasn’t injured and he told them to stop crying, she said.
Her father, Joe Baker, had always told his children to hide in the closet if there was ever a tornado.
“We grew up here. Like this is our childhood home,” said Snipes who was throwing away things and figuring out what could be saved. “And you see it on the news. But you never imagine it’s going to happen to you.”