Posted on 10/20/2004 9:57:13 AM PDT by Graybeard58
COOTER, Mo. - The young girl wore red slippers as she walked to where her home once stood. This was where she nearly died.
Katie Murphy Tims, just 10 years old, stepped carefully Tuesday over the scattered pieces of wood and household items like books and a laundry hose. It was clear she lost almost everything in the tornado the night before. Even her slippers had been donated to her. Clumps of white cotton coated the ground. The just-picked harvest hung from trees like it had always grown there. It caught Katie's eye.
"Whoa," she said, "it looks like snow."
This was the young girl's first trip back to County Road 563 since a tornado Monday night exploded three modular houses, including her own, killing her grandfather Leroy Tims, her uncle Jamie Smith and her aunt Joyce Crosskno.
Ten people were in the homes when the tornado hit at 7:45 p.m. The survivors, including Katie's parents, suffered injuries ranging from cuts to broken bones. The National Weather Service rated the tornado an F-2 - a moderate storm on the Fujita Scale - with wind speeds of up to 125 mph as it passed through this rural community of 451 people deep in the state's Bootheel about 210 miles south of St. Louis.
On Tuesday, as a backhoe cleared wreckage, Katie walked with her arm around Amanda Trammell, 8. Amanda's sister Abby, 10, joined them, limping a little from 18 stitches in her right knee. All three were at Katie's house when the twister hit.
The three girls were ushered inside a closet in Katie's room as the storm bore down. The girls recalled that the house tilted up on its side. They clung to one another as they flew about 300 feet across a yard and then a road, landing in a cotton field. They believe they were saved by landing on a pile of pink home insulation.
Amanda said it was like a magic carpet ride "but a bad one."
As people spotted the blond-haired Katie in the fading sunlight Tuesday, they ran over to console her.
"Katie, I found your trumpet and it's fine," said Tracy Franklin, a Cooter volunteer firefighter.
Someone else told her that dozens of recovered family photos had been taken up to a church for cleaning. Franklin added that Katie's donkey was OK, and so was the dog and all of her puppies and even one cat. Two women hugged each of the girls and told them how lucky they were.
Katie smiled a bit. She dug both hands into the pockets of her jeans. And she continued her walk, the two Trammell sisters by her side.
Amanda and Abby's mother, Carla Ledbetter, had been taking care of the girls and Katie since the tornado. The three girls had nightmares Monday night, and Ledbetter said she tried to delay as long as possible their return to the scene. But the girls insisted.
Katie hadn't seen her father since the incident. Don Tims, a cotton farmer, was in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., with multiple broken bones. Katie's mother, Debra Tims, was at the hospital looking after her husband and her sister Sharon Smith. Smith lost her husband in the tornado. Katie and the girls planned to visit them today.
Katie walked along a low brick wall that once ringed her home's foundation. She played with a silver key in her hand. It was her house key. She handed it to Franklin.
"How come the steps stayed, but the house didn't?" asked Abby as they walked by the brick front steps.
Katie stopped and picked up an open book, flipping to the cover: "Handbook of Community Medical Terms." She picked up a greeting card that thanked someone for being a good friend.
Abby pointed to a broken piece of trim, like you might find around a door. It was painted pink. Katie's room was pink. The girls stepped over several pieces of corn on the cob, a frozen pizza box and dozens of PokeMon cards.
It was nearly time to go. Carla Ledbetter didn't want them staying out here too long.
Franklin remembered he needed to give Katie something before she left. He walked over to a pickup and reached into a pile of debris loaded in the back.
He pulled out a purse. A leather satchel with flowers on it.
"That's my momma's purse," Katie said. Franklin opened it and showed Katie how everything was still in there: the cell phones and even some of her mother's jewelry, like a 1978 high school class ring.
Katie smiled a bit. She'd get the chance to give the purse to her mom in person.
It was time to go. The girls loaded up in Ledbetter's truck.
"You girls stay good," Franklin told them.
They pulled away down a dirt road. Franklin stood talking about how traumatic the tornado was for everyone in town. He said they were fortunate to live in such a close, small community.
As he spoke, a sound like thunder rang out suddenly. Franklin turned to see where it was coming from.
"Must be across the river," he said. "I hate hearing thunder now."
How you can help: Send checks to benefit families in Monday's tornado in Cooter, Mo.:
Tims Family Benefit, Account No. 3917507
Or
Smith Family Benefit, Account No. 3917549
Mail to: The Bank of the Star of the Bootheel Steele, Mo. 63877
I pasted the link in the article. Don't know why it didn't appear. Here it is:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/E9D1C572831AB22386256F33001390EF?OpenDocument&Headline=Bootheel+girls+thrown+300+feet+by+tornado+return+to+scene+of
Whoa... that's a story that kinda brings you up short.
Looks like they don't have looters like south florida after those hurricanes. Bless this family in their time of need.
Not a looter in Cooter, (Cooter, Mo.)
"as they flew about 300 feet across a yard and then a road, landing in a cotton field. They believe they were saved by landing on a pile of pink home insulation."
300 feet is a long way to be thrown, can't help but think something else broke their fall besides the pink insulation. Those winds act in such strange ways.
I almost stopped reading right there because, swear to god, I thought this was some joke article about the Wizard of Oz.
Glad I kept reading. What an inspiring article.
Huh? Care to elaborate?
Maybe is was not only pink insulation that broke her fall, but maybe they landed on a wicked witch.
I think maybe the pink insulation was inside the closet being stored there. That would have eased their landing.
Excellent article. Very straightforward, calmly written, descriptive, no tear-jerking tricks, just reporting the facts and listening to what people say to each other. You don't see that often these days. Kudos to Todd Frankel for standing back and listening instead of asking some dumb horrible question like, "How did you feel when your relatives died?"
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