Each year, tornadoes take the lives of midwestern Americans and devastate neighborhoods and businesses, leaving little that’s salvageable in their wake. Depending on the size of the funnel and the speed of the winds, a twister can easily rip through even the largest and most solid structures, which is why experts warn civilians to get underground during a storm.
Unfortunately, not everyone has a basement or cellar for shelter during a tornado watch. As such, the next best place to hunker down is in the bathtub, preferably in a bathroom without any external walls or windows.
When the tornado sirens sounded the alarm, a Kentucky grandmother rushed her two infant grandsons into her bathroom. Since she didn’t have a storm cellar, Clara Lutz padded the tub with pillows and blankets before laying 15-month-old Kaden and 3-month-old Dallas inside. Clinging to her faith, she also placed a Bible inside with them.
Lutz said that she braced for impact, positioning herself over the tub as the tornado drew close. When the powerful twister suddenly tore through her home, the bathtub was ripped from the foundation and taken up into the air.
“I felt the rumbling, I felt the shaking of the house,” said Lutz. “Next thing I knew, the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands. I couldn’t hold on.”
In the destruction, Lutz was hit in the back of the head by the water tank from the tub. Once the tornado had passed through the house, she eventually managed to pull herself out of the rubble, hoping to find her grandchildren. Fearing the worst, she desperately scanned the devastation for any sign of the tub.
“I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be,” Clara Lutz recalled. “I had no clue at all where these babies was. All I could say was ‘Lord, please bring my babies back to me safely. Please, I beg thee.’”
Lutz met sheriff’s deputies, who had followed the path of the tornado to rescue survivors. Miraculously, the officers had found the bathtub upside down on the lawn. Underneath were Kaden and Dallas, shaken up but still alive.
“The sheriff came down. I got in the sheriff’s car down at the end of my driveway. They opened up the door and brought me Kaden, my 15-month-old. And they brought me my three-month-old baby, Dallas. They brought him to me. He had a big old goose egg on the back of his head, we didn’t know what was wrong,” said Lutz.
Upon inspection, they discovered that the 3-month-old had a large contusion on his head. Dallas was suffering from a brain bleed and required emergency medical intervention. As such, the baby was rushed to the hospital for life-saving treatment.
However, another miracle was in the making. After they made it to the hospital, doctors discovered that Dallas’ brain was fine. Incredibly, the bleeding had stopped before he even arrived at the emergency room.
Lutz attributes her grandsons’ survival to God’s divine protection. In a tornado that flattened whole buildings, a pair of infants not only survived but eventually came out with hardly any injury.
Stories of survival can often be explained away by human strength, willpower, or science. However, there are some cases that can’t be described as anything but supernatural, and these brothers are living proof of that.