Video Shows Two Babies Found Alive After Being Swept Away in a Bathtub During Deadly Kentucky Tornadoes
Miracles do happen. After more than 40 tornadoes tore through Kentucky two weekends ago, individuals desperately scrambled to find their missing family members. And while many people tragically died during the natural disaster, others, against all odds, pulled through.
Two of the survivors were 15-month-old Kaden and 3-month-old Dallas from Hopkins County, who were sheltering in a bathtub when it was ripped from the ground and thrown to the end of the house’s driveway.
According to their grandmother Clara Lutz, she put her two grandchildren in the bathtub with a pillow, a blanket and a bible. She hoped the shelter of the bathtub would protect them from the incoming tornadoes. But soon after she put the children in the tub, the house began shaking and the tub was sky-bound.
“Next thing I knew, the tub had lifted and it was out of my hands,” she told WFIE-TV. “I couldn’t hold on. I just — oh my God.”
After the tornadoes passed, Lutz began frantically searching for her grandbabies. Unfortunately, the grandmother was injured herself after she was hit in the back of the head by the bathtub’s water tank. Not only that, but her entire house was stripped from its foundation.
“All I could say was, ‘Lord please bring my babies back safely. Please, I beg thee,’” she told WFIE-TV.
It was local police officers who reunited Grandma Clara with Kaden and Dallas. Authorities found her grandchildren in the upside-down tub at the end of her driveway. The entire heart-racing rescue was captured on the officers’ body cameras and later shared to social media.
While the footage is shaky, we see authorities dig through rubble with the goal of finding the two babies. We hear Carla yelling in the background, including repeating “Oh my god.” One officer overturns the tub and pulls the unharmed baby (who appears to be Dallas) out of the rubble. You can hear the joy and relief in the officer’s voice as he says, “Hey, baby.” While Dallas makes a few noises of distress, he isn’t crying hard.
Naturally, the body cam footage went viral on social media with over 1,000 likes and over 300 retweets. People flooded the comments with statement of awe. “So glad those babies were found safe! God speed to all the first responders. Stay safe,” said one Twitter user.
Many Twitter users praised the officers for their courage and bravery. “I’ve watched this video about 20 times. All of those officers… I’m certain some didn’t know the status of their family & friends. What good people… what great people,” wrote another.
The children weren’t unharmed, but they were not gravely injured, either. While 3-month-old Dallas had brain bleeding caused by a large lump on the back of his head, by the time first responders took him to nearby Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the bleeding had stopped.
And while this family experienced a miracle that day, so many other families in Kentucky are in the throes of grief. According to the AP, 75 people have been confirmed dead in Kentucky. Across the entire region where the deadly tornadoes landed, the death toll stands at 90.