‘Thank you, Jesus!’ Dramatic footage captured the moment a grandmother found her two babies safe under a pile of debris, tucked away with a Bible and blanket.
Published Dec. 23, 2021 1:42 PM EST | Updated Dec. 23, 2021 2:59 PM EST
A bathtub became a tornado sanctuary in Kentucky last weekend, sheltering two babies from the wrath of a deadly tornado.
Dramatic video from a Hopkins County sheriff's deputy shows rescue crews finding the overturned bathtub with the two young children inside after a twister tracked through their neighborhood in Hopkins County, Kentucky.
"Can you get down here? We need help! We have someone underneath this debris in the bathtub," the deputy says in the video.
Bodycam footage shows flashlights illuminating the debris in the dark, when someone lifted a shower up and off the bathtub, uncovering the boys under the debris.
As the video continues, one person cries out, "Both of them are okay. Oh, praise God!"
The footage then shows crews pulling 15-month-old Kaden and his 3-month-old brother, Dallas, out of the bathtub before reuniting them with their hysterical grandmother, Clara Lutz.
"Thank you, Jesus," Lutz says.
Lutz told WFIE she was babysitting her two grandchildren Friday night when one of the twisters tracked towards her neighborhood. She put the babies in the bathtub with a blanket, pillow and a Bible.
"I felt the rumbling; I felt the shaking of the house," she told WFIE. "Next thing you knew, the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands. I couldn't hold on."
After the twister had passed, Lutz's whole house was stripped down to the foundation, but she went outside and searched for anyone who could help her locate her grandchildren.
In the search through the debris, two sheriff's deputies and two community members found the overturned bathtub, with the babies inside.
Dana Stonecipher, right, retrieves papers from her family business office Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, in Mayfield, Ky. Tornadoes and severe weather caused catastrophic damage across several states Friday, killing multiple people overnight.
Timmy Vannoy told CBS '60-Minutes' that when he checked the hill for his aunt and uncle, he noticed that almost every house was destroyed and recalled hearing shouts of missing children.
Both babies were reunited with Lutz, who was waiting in an officer's car. The three-month-old suffered a bump on his head and was brought to a local hospital.
Lutz told WFIE she didn't care about the material loss and credits God for saving her grandchildren's lives.
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Lutz's story is just one of many across the region. Prisilla Deravag told AccuWeather news report, Sarah Gisriel, that everything happened in a blink of the eye when the twister struck her home. Deravag protected her four-month-old son's body from debris by using her body as a shield as the EF4 tornado destroyed their home.
At least 92 people lost their lives, and many others are still hospitalized from injuries after the historic tornado outbreak on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11, according to AP News.
This December has been one for the history books, with a startling amount of severe weather. And according to AccuWeather forecasts, residents of Kentucky can expect quiet and warmer-than-average weather for the holiday.
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