Incredible new bodycam footage captured the moment sheriff deputies stumbled across two babies placed in a bathtub with a Bible and a blanket as the cops scoured the rubble after a deadly tornado hit Kentucky and ripped the infant-filled tub from their home.
The 15-month-old and 3-month-old boys were stuffed in the bathtub by their grandmother in an attempt to save them when her house started shaking from the tornado rolling through on December 10.
The newly released footage shows two sheriff’s deputies and two community members searching through the wreckage of Clara Lutz’s Barnsley home hours after it was ripped from its foundation in the storm, to find 15-month-old Kaden and three-month old Dallas.
As they search in the night through the debris with flashlights they discover an overturned bathtub that contained baby Dallas, who appeared to be fine with ‘no cuts on (his) leg’ according to a sheriff deputy.
A sheriff deputy tells Lutz, ‘I told you we’d get ’em,’ as she is reunited with Dallas while getting into the police car.
The three-month-old barely fussed as he was rescued and carried away.
The search then continued for Dallas’ older sibling thorough the endless amount of debris and he was found safely wrapped in a blanket.
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New bodycam footage shows the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office’s desperate search for two babies who were stuffed into a bathtub by their grandmother
As they search in the night through the debris with flashlights they discover an overturned bathtub that contained baby Dallas and pull him to safety
Kaden was pulled out of the debris and appeared fine as well and was carried away without even so much as crying.
The tornadoes killed at least 93 people in five states, including 78 in Kentucky, after more than 40 tornadoes pummeled the region.
Six were killed in Illinois, five in Tennessee, two in Arkansas, and two in Missouri.
Following the miraculous rescue by members of the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office, the babies were reunited with Lutz, who was totally overwhelmed at the sight of one of the babies.
‘Praise God, lord Jesus! Oh thank you, Jesus,’ the grandmother yelled as she took Kaden into her arms.
Dallas suffered a brain bleed from the effects of the storm and was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville.
However, the bleeding stopped before Lutz got to the hospital.
Clara Lutz (center) was babysitting her grandchildren Kaden, 15 months (left), and Dallas, three months (right), when a tornado was ripping through her Barnsley, Kentucky, home
She sheltered the baby from the storm in a bathtub with a blanket, pillow and Bible. They were later found underneath the overturned tub in Lutz’s yard (pictured)
Dallas (left) suffered a brain bleed, which stopped before Lutz could get to the hospital. Kaden (right) survived without any injuries
Lutz, who frequently babysits her two infant grandchildren said she put them in a bathtub with a blanket, a pillow and a Bible in a desperate bid to save them because she did not have a basement to shelter in.
Lutz’s home was stripped down to the foundation in the chaos and she was hit in the back of the head with the tub’s water tank.
‘I felt the rumbling. I felt the shaking of the house. The next thing I knew the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands. I couldn’t hold on,’ Lutz told Click Orlando.
‘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 these babies back to me safely. Lord please, I beg thee.”‘
The winds send everything inside flying, including the holiday decorations
The roof was torn apart after a tornado spun through it on December 10
The bank in Mayfield, above before the storm, is one of nine branches across Kentucky
The outcome was luckier than most, in Missouri parents seeking shelter from the storm put their three daughters in a bathtub a windowless bathroom in their home before a tornado ripped through the house, killing the eldest girl and tossing her family members into the debris.
Annistyn Rackley, 9, died on December 10 when the twister splintered their Caruthersville home, carrying the family members dozens of yards through the air into a field where first responders later found them in mud.
To prove they were in their ‘safe space’ with the storm approaching Friday evening, Meghan Rackley texted her aunt, Sandra Hooker, a photo of the three in and next to the bathtub, smiling. Fifteen minutes later, the twister ripped the family out of their home, tossing them in a nearby field.
Emergency responders located the family and took them to a nearby hospital where middle child Avalinn, 7, told doctors: ‘I was flying around in the tornado and I prayed to Jesus to take care of me, and he spit me out – and the tornado spit me out into the mud.’
The other family members were injured but survived.
Mother Meghan Rackley, 32, suffered a brain injury, large cut and several broken bones. The family is asking the community to keep her in their prayers.
Father Trey Rackley, 37 – who suffered cuts and bruises – and the youngest daughter, Alanna, 3, have been released from the hospital.
A heartwarming video shows Avalinn, who suffered a broken vertebrae in her back, walking down the hospital corridors after having to learn to walk again several days after the tragedy.
The seven-year-old was filmed wearing a neck brace and using a walker to cruise down the hallway at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital less than a week after surgery in a video posted by her grandmother Sunday.
Avalinn Rackley, 7, was filmed wearing a neck brace and using a walker to cruise down the hallway at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital less than a week after surgery in a video posted by her grandmother Sunday
Avalinn, left, was with her older sister Annistyn, 9, holding a doll in the bathtub, and little sister Alanna, 3, taking shelter in their bathroom when one of more than 30 tornadoes destroyed their Caruthersville home. Annistyn was killed in the tornado
In Kentucky, state emergency management officials and the state health department have said that the current death toll is 78.
The governor, who noted that his staff believes there are an additional three deaths, said Saturday that all of the people reported missing in the state after the outbreak of tornadoes have been accounted for.
Surveillance video showed a tornado tearing through a bank in Mayfield, Kentucky, when dozens of fatal twisters wreaked havoc.
The FNB Bank branch in Mayfield – the same Western Kentucky town where eight people died at a candle factory – was destroyed by a tornado on the same night.
Video from inside the bank shows Christmas trees and standee posters shaking from the wind as the twister approaches. The lights flicker off before the tornado rips through the lobby, ripping off the glass doors and sending a Christmas tree flying.
Billy and Judy Miller died while holding hands during last weekend’s deadly tornadoes that ripped through Kentucky
The elderly couple had been married for 56 years when they died when a tornado tore through Muhlenberg County – northwest of Bowling Green – in western Kentucky Friday night
Also in Kentucky, an elderly couple married for 56 years died holding hands after the devastating tornadoes.
Billy and Judy Miller were two of the victims killed as storms tore through Muhlenberg County – northwest of Bowling Green in western Kentucky – late Friday night.
‘They had passed away together, holding on to each other,’ their granddaughter, Serenity Miller told KHOU.
‘Their love was so deep for each other, we knew they wouldn’t be able to survive without each other.’
Miller said that despite half a century together and losing a son, Billy Miller Jr, and a daughter, Heather Miller Brooks, her grandparents’ love for each other never dimmed.
In Mayfield, more than 100 employees of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory braved a tornado inside the facility, with some saying they were trapped under as much as five feet of rubble.
Elijah Johnson, 20, has filed a lawsuit with 109 other employees against the family-owned candle factory in Kentucky.
They are asking for an undisclosed amount after they say they were told that if they left the factory they’d be fired – despite tornado sirens going off.
Only a few hours later, the whole factory was destroyed by the tornado, killing eight and injuring several. It is unclear how many are injured or missing.
The lawsuit claims the company showed ‘flagrant indifference to the rights of Plaintiff Johnson and to the other similarly situated Plaintiffs with a subjective awareness that such conduct will result in human death and/or bodily injuries.’
The company has since denied this claim, stating that they followed protocol.
Elijah Johnson, 20, has filed a lawsuit with 109 other employees after the Mayfield Consumer Products factory allegedly said they couldn’t go home before the tornado on December 10
The before-and-after of the factory, which was completely obliterated by the tornado as it tore through Kentucky, leaving nothing but rubble behind. The company has since denied telling its employees they couldn’t leave and are offering hazard pay
Source: DailyMail
