iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Jerry Millet got the unexpected ride of his life while he was driving down a Louisiana highway and his truck was picked up by the swirling winds of a tornado.
Surveillance video from a nearby gas station captured the horror on tape Monday afternoon as Millet was making deliveries in his Ford pickup truck in Gonzales, La.
“I didn’t know where I was or how high in the air I was, but I kept pushing on the brakes in that truck, like that was going to do something for me,” Millet told WAFB-TV.
The video shows Millet’s truck being lifted into the air like a toy. His truck twirled several times while airborne. Witnesses say the truck was as high as the telephone pole he flew past.
“The truck just started bouncing,” Millet said. “I thought I was dead.”
Millet’s truck remained in the air for mere seconds before it literally fell from the sky and crashed 20 feet away onto a truck parked nearby.
A Good Samaritan driving in the opposite direction saw Millet’s truck take flight and immediately stopped her vehicle to help him.
“I hear my daughter’s voice, my baby girl,” Millet said. “I look up, here she come a walking.”
Millet’s daughter, Lacey, just happened to be in the right place at the right time to assist her father.
“He was like, ‘How did you get here? How did you know?’ And I said, ‘I seen the whole thing happened,’” Lacey Millet said.
The only causality was Jerry Millet’s delivery truck. He suffered minor injuries and was released from the hospital on the same day.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) -- In March Stephanie Decker lost both her legs saving her children from an Indiana tornado. On Friday, she walked into the Oval Office with the help of President Obama.
The president welcomed Decker, her husband Joe and their children, Reese and Dominic, to the White House less than four months after the twister destroyed their home in Henryville, Ind.
Decker saved her young children from the tornado by shielding them with her own body, but lost her legs in the process when they were crushed under debris.
A White House photo shows Decker, who now uses prosthetic legs, walking arm-in-arm with the president in the Oval Office.
Decker and the president discussed a foundation she started to help children with artificial limbs play sports.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GettyImages(JOPLIN, Mo.) -- President Obama returned to Joplin, Mo., Monday night, one year after a monster tornado leveled the town on high school graduation day, to celebrate its remarkable recovery and the first class of graduates since the storm.
“As I look out at this class, and across this city, what’s clear is that you’re the source of inspiration today -- to me, to this state, to this country, and to people all over the world,” Obama said at Joplin High School’s 2012 commencement ceremony, where he was the keynote speaker.
“By now, most of you have probably relived those 32 minutes again and again,” he said of the twister, a mile-wide EF-5 that tore across the region with winds over 200 miles per hour. “Where you were. What you saw. When you knew for sure that it was over.
“And yet, the story of Joplin isn’t just the story of what happened the next day,” Obama said. “It’s the story of what happened the next day, and the day after that. And all the days and weeks and months that followed.”
The president, who visited Joplin in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 storm, hailed the resilience of the community in the wake of devastating loss -- 161 killed, more than 8,000 homes and businesses destroyed, and more than $2.8 billion in damage.
Over the past 12 months, Joplin has undertaken a massive clean-up and rebuilding effort that has slowly and steadily produced signs of healing, but challenges and scars remain.
The graduating class of high school students completed their studies in temporary classrooms set up at a local mall. The town’s hospital, St. John’s Regional Medical Center, and hundreds of family homes have yet to be rebuilt.
Meteorologists say the storm was one of the deadliest and most expensive in U.S. history.
But Obama made clear it was not the historic nature of the storm but a recovery effort marked by “kindness and generosity and quiet service” that would be the defining characteristic of the tragedy.
“You’ll remember that in a town of 50,000 people, nearly 50,000 more came to help in to help the weeks after the tornado -- perfect strangers who’ve never met you, and didn’t ask for anything in return,” Obama said.
“One man traveled all the way from Japan, because he remembered that Americans were there for his country after last year’s tsunami, and he wanted the chance he said to pay it forward,” he said.
The president acknowledged the thousands of Americans who came to the aid of Joplin, including AmeriCorps volunteers, a state college football team, even Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who made a $500,000 donation to rebuilding effort.
He also gave a nod to the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally in the Middle East, which provided new laptops for the city’s school and a $5 million donation to help rebuild a hospital.
“There are so many good people in the world. There is such a decency, a bigness of spirit, in this country of ours,” Obama said. “So, Class of 2012, you’ve got to remember that. Remember what people did here. And like the man from Japan who came to Joplin, make sure in your own life that you pay it forward.”
President Obama also said the Joplin story has a message about the “power of community” to bridge divisions among people and achieve common goals.
“My deepest hope for all of you is that as you begin this new chapter in your life, you will bring that spirit of Joplin to every place you travel, to everything you do,” Obama told the graduates.
“You can serve as a reminder that we’re not meant to walk this road alone; that we’re not expected to face down adversity by ourselves. We need God, we need each other,” he said, hinting at a message that has been a tagline of his re-election campaign.
“We’re important to each other,” he added. “And we’re stronger together than we are on our own.”
Obama exhorted the Class of 2012 to apply the same spirit underpinning a drive to rebuild Joplin to “help rebuild America.”
“America will only succeed if we all pitch in and pull together,” he said. “And I’m counting on you to be leaders in that effort. Because you are from Joplin, and you’ve already defied the odds.”
Comstock/Thinkstock (SAN ANTONIO, Texas) -- Severe weather hammered the Midwest and South including a tornado that touched down in San Antonio, where at least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Residents from Minnesota to Texas are bracing for flooding Tuesday after severe weather brought heavy rain and hail that is anticipated to continue for the next few days. With the storm system slowing significantly, tornadoes are becoming less likely, but flash flooding becomes a major concern, forecasters said.
The slow-moving weather pattern will bring thunderstorms with heavy rain as it moves over the same area, according to the National Weather Service, which said that some locations will receive a foot of rain by midweek.
The NWS reported that the tornado touched down 25 miles southwest of San Antonio on Monday evening, and that parts of the city and surrounding areas were under a tornado warning. Although some were trapped inside their homes, no fatalities were reported by early Tuesday morning.
Tornado warnings across the San Antonio area were canceled around 11 p.m. Monday, according to ABC News affiliate KSAT. Crews began assessing damage to the area late Monday night.
The sheriff's office in Medina, Texas, reported multiple injuries, but does not have a count yet.
"Pretty much all" of the approximately 50 homes damaged were completely destroyed, a representative from the office said.
Interim Fire Marshal Craig Roberts reported heavily damaged homes and five injuries, with one person reported missing, according to KSAT. He said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Strong winds in the Dallas-Fort Worth area brought major power outages, while outages were reported in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa County. Heavy rains closed roads in Oklahoma, and roofs were reportedly blown off by high winds in Minnesota.
Monday's severe weather follows an EF3 twister with winds up to 165 mph that struck North Platte, Neb., on Sunday.
Scott Olsen/Getty Images (HENRYVILLE, Ind.) -- High school security cameras in Henryville, Ind., captured rare footage of the effects of a tornado that ripped the unoccupied school apart.
On March 2, a deadly string of tornadoes turned tight-knit rural communities into apocalyptic war zones. Buildings were reduced to rubble, businesses were destroyed and families were left homeless by the disaster.
In Henryville, the town’s elementary, middle and high schools were wiped out. Receipts from the town were found 150 miles away in Cincinnati, carried by the brutal force of the storm.
The death toll was 39 across the South and Midwest in that bout of wild weather.
Decker Family/Handout(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) -- Faced with having her house blown away by a tornado that struck her town last week, Indiana resident Stephanie Decker's motherly instincts kicked in as she used her body to shield her two young kids from the storm. But her heroic efforts came at a price: she lost both her legs in the process.
"I knew my leg was barely attached or it was severed. I didn't know which but I knew it was bad. If I didn't get help soon, I was going to bleed out," Decker told ABC News, which interviewed her Monday night from her hospital bed in Louisville, Ky.
Decker, 37, and her family were smack dab in the middle of a tornado outbreak Friday that included 140 reported twisters, 76 confirmed landings and 39 deaths.
"It was nothing I expected," she said. "I never, ever thought in a million years my house would be blown away."
Decker was determined to keep her kids safe, and her actions saved them, but at a steep cost. Not only was her home lost, but both of her legs had to be amputated late Friday -- one just below the knee, the other just above it.
"I assumed I was safe and I heard the roar like a train, and I heard it behind me, and I knew it was coming," she recalled on Monday. "And it was so loud that I knew that I needed to do something different. I knew staying put wasn't going to work."
So Decker acted. She dashed down into her home's basement with son Dominic, 8, and daughter Reese, 5. As the house began to disintegrate she tried to shield them with a comforter.
"I remember the whole thing," Decker said. "I stayed conscious the whole time. I couldn't afford [to pass out]. They needed me. They had to have me, so I had to figure out what to do. And my son is a hero. He went to get help."
Both Decker's legs were smashed. She also suffered a punctured lung. Her children, however, were unscathed.
Next, it was her son's turn for heroism. He knew his mother was hurt and he crawled out from under his mother and dashed over to a neighbor's house.
Help soon came and Decker was evacuated to the hospital.
Overnight, her husband, Joe Decker, tearfully said that the flattened house on Henryville Road had been their dream house. Stephanie Decker had told her husband she always wanted to have the children's handprints imprinted in the foundation's cement, because "we were never gonna leave here."
And there they are today. Small prints, with "Reese," and "D" for Dominic scrawled in the concrete, an indelible testimony to a family still intact.
ABC News(NEW PEKIN, Ind.) -- The death toll from dozens of tornadoes that ravaged parts of the Midwest and South last week has reached 39 with the death of 15-month-old Angel Babcock, the toddler found next to the bodies of her family members in a field near their Indiana home.
She died Sunday from traumatic brain injury after her family removed her from life support.
Angel was taken by helicopter to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday and placed in critical condition. She died Sunday at 4:10 p.m. after her grandmother, Kathy Babcock, made the decision with other family members to take her off life support.
"I had my arm around her when she took her last breath," Kathy Babcock said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. "I sang to her itsy-bitsy spider."
Angel's mother, Moriah Babcock, 20; father, Joseph Babcock, 21; and two siblings Jayden and Kendall were found dead in the same field as the toddler Friday afternoon. Kathy Babcock told ABC News that when she let her granddaughter go Sunday afternoon, she knew the baby girl was going in the arms of her father.
"We were all around the bed, I had my hand on the side of her, and I reached for her hand, and was holding her hand," the grandmother said. "I don't know what made me let go, but she put her arms straight up, she was daddy's little girl. So daddy picked her up and took her. The whole room seen that. He was just like, standing in front of her. She wanted to go with daddy."
Now, the family and friends of the Babcocks are faced with the task of burying five of their loved ones.
"They need to have a proper burial," family friend Sherry Young said. "That's my dream, that's my prayer. I've been praying and praying that this can happen for them."
The Babcock family has turned to their community for help in burying their loved ones. Bank of America has set up a Babcock Family Fund to help pay for the family's funeral expenses.
"I know it's tragic we lost all five of them and it's hard that we did," Young said. "The one thing I can say, they're all together and that is comforting. Knowing they are together because they were together day in and day out and they'll always be together."
ABC News(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) -- The toddler found among the bodies of her family members in a field outside a home in New Pekin, Ind., that was flattened by a powerful tornado, died Sunday of traumatic brain injuries.
Angel Babcock was taken to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, where she was placed on life support. The 15-month-old's grandparents and doctors took her off life support because of the severity of her brain injuries, and she died Sunday at 4:10 p.m., according to the coroner.
"Angel has been reunited with her parents," her grandfather, Jack Brough, said in a statement read by hospital staff. "We want to thank God for all of you and for your thoughts and prayers. God will bring you and all of us out of this. That is what it will take. All should look to God. The family would also like to thank all the wonderful staff and doctors at Kosair Children's Hospital who have taken such kind care of Angel."
Washington County Sheriff Claude Combs told ABC News that Angel was discovered near the bodies of her 20-year-old mother Moriah Brough and two younger siblings, Jaydon and Kendall, ages 2 years and 2 months old. The body of her 21-year-old father, Joseph Babcock, was also recovered from the field following Friday's twisters.
"I don't even want to believe it," Joseph Babcock's best friend Justin Henley told ABC News affiliate WXYZ. "[Babcock] loved everybody. He never talked bad about anybody. He's just a good person and he loved his kids a lot."
"Kendall…was found in her car seat upside down. Jayden…was found under the rubble," Sherry Young, Henley's mother told WXYZ. "Joseph was found on the opposite side of the road from his house. Moriah was found underneath a tree. Angel was found out in the middle of the field all alone."
Angel's death brings the death toll to 39 across five states that were hit by tornados late last week.
A state of emergency was in effect in western Kentucky, where 20 people were killed by the dozens of tornados that ravaged the area Friday, leaving many cities looking like war zones. The tornados hit 19 counties and left at least 300 people injured in Kentucky.
Comstock/Thinkstock(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) -- A toddler is on life support after being found in a field outside of a flattened home in New Pekin, Ind., among the bodies of her family who were killed by a powerful tornado.
Twenty-month-old Angel Babcock was taken to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky., Saturday where she is in critical condition.
Washington County Sheriff Claude Combs told ABC News that the girl was discovered near the bodies of her 20-year-old mother Moriah Brough and two younger siblings, Jaydon and Kendall, ages 2 years and 2 months old. The body of her 21-year-old father, Joseph Babcock, was also recovered from the field following Friday's twisters.
"I don't even want to believe it," Joseph Babcock's best friend Justin Henley told ABC News affiliate WXYZ. "[Babcock] loved everybody. He never talked bad (sic) about anybody. He's just a good person and he loved his kids a lot."
Kendall “was found in her car seat upside down,” while Jayden “was found under the rubble," Sherry Young, Henley's mother told WXYZ. "Joseph was found on the opposite side of the road from his house. Moriah was found underneath a tree. Angel was found out in the middle of the field all alone."
"Angel is on life support in the Children's hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. They're not sure if she is going to be able to make it or not," said Young.
The death toll in western Kentucky has risen to 20 and a state of emergency is in effect after dozens of tornados ravaged the area Friday, leaving many cities looking like warzones.
The tornados hit 19 counties and left at least 300 people injured in Kentucky.
Gilber Acciardo with the Laurel County Sheriff's Department in Kentucky said many of the injuries are serious.
"Lost legs, amputations for sure, a lot of serious broken bones, a lot of severe injuries, head injuries," Acciardo said.
The town of West Liberty, Ky., was completely flattened by the twister. Dozens were reported missing overnight and at least two people were killed.
Hundreds are now sleeping on the floor of the city's elementary school, which has been turned into a Red Cross shelter. With only ravaged homes to return to, these people could be sleeping at the school for weeks.
Officials are going door to door in many communities, looking for survivors.
Scott Olson/Getty Images(CHELSEA, Ind.) -- A mother's strength was no match for a deadly tornado that sucked her 4-year-old daughter out of her arms as the two huddled in a cellar in Chelsea, Ind.
The child and her great grandparents, who were upstairs during the twister, were found dead in a field behind their home.
"We lost a very good farmer, a good neighbor and his wife their great grandbaby," Tony Williams, owner of the Chelsea General Store told ABCNews.com.
Forty miles west of Chelsea, in Salem, Ind., a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby was found alone in a field. Authorities worked overnight to identify the girl's family while she was being treated at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky. The infant is listed in critical condition.
A hospital spokesperson told ABCNews.com on Saturday that the family had been identified, however he declined to say whether they were alive.
The deadly string of tornados turned tight knit rural communities into apocalyptic war zones. At least 31 people were killed Friday in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
Schools were reduced to rubble, businesses were destroyed and families were left homeless by the disaster.
In Henryville, Ind., the town's elementary, middle and high schools were completely wiped out. Receipts from the town were found 150 miles away in Cincinnati, carried by the brutal force of the storm.
The only structure left standing in the community of Marysville, Ind., was the town's water tower.
"This was the worst-case scenario. There's no way you can prepare for something like this," Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden told the Indianapolis Star.
Three bus loads of children, from elementary to high school, rode out the twister in Tony Williams' Chelsea, Ind., store.
"There were a few kids who were upset and crying a little bit," Williams said. "Being a rural community, everyone is really comforting to each other. Right now, we're making sure people have food and a place to stay."
The town of West Liberty, Ky., was completely flattened by the twister. Dozens were reported missing overnight Friday and at least two people were killed.
"The only thing I could think to pray was 'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,'" resident Martha Jo Hall told the Herald-Leader. "And He took care of us."
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Jerry Millet got the unexpected ride of his life while he was driving down a Louisiana highway and his truck was picked up by the swirling winds of a tornado.
