Tornado Victims Took Shelter in Bathtubs. When They Emerged, Everything Was Gone

A Kentucky family sought shelter in their home’s bathtub when a tornado barreled through their city, London, Ky., on Friday, May 16, according to FOX Weather.

Ida House and three other members of her family found safety in their bathtub, but when they emerged from the rubble, their home in the Sunshine Hills neighborhood was destroyed. “It’s bad. We lost everything except some in the house, not much,” House told FOX Weather.

Once they could safely assess the damage, House revealed that she, her uncle and her grandson discovered that some of their neighbors were trapped under debris, and removed them from there.

“It’s going to be a long time, but we’ll get it,” House told the news station. “We’re going to get everything back to normal, and we’re going to stay right here. This is our neighborhood. And we’re going to stay right here.”

Roger and Karina Rivas also found shelter in the bathroom and hunkered down in the shower. Like House and her family, the shower is all that still stands. After the pair received the tornado warning, they ran into the small bathroom and laid down on the floor until it passed. 

“We thought we had just fallen down, but we realized we were just about 10, 15 feet out,” Roger Rivas said. “The house is gone.” He sustained a serious injury to his arm from debris.

They revealed that during the trauma of their storm, their German Shepherd, Shadow, escaped their grasp. Shadow was found safely, but due to the distressing event, she keeps running away.

“We didn’t know. We thought she was dead,” Roger said. “The house, anything that was in it, it really doesn’t matter. We could care less. All this stuff is replaceable. We are not replaceable, it just … overwhelming to see how fragile it is and just feel so overwhelmed that we made it out.”

At least 28 people are dead after the catastrophic storm systems hit Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia, the Associated Press, The Washington Post and NBC News reported. 

On Monday, May 19, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned of severe weather from the central and southern Plains into the Ozarks. “All severe weather hazards are expected to include tornadoes (some potentially strong to intense), very large hail and severe winds,” the agency wrote.

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The wave of intense storms comes after the federal government announced that hundreds of employees from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency that tracks dangerous storm systems and oversees the NWS, would be laid off. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) significantly cut back on training for emergency managers ahead of hurricane season, which begins on June 1.