Laura Hicks, 49, of Hillsboro and Kenny Stubblefield, 68, of House Springs said they feel lucky to be alive after a Dec. 10 tornado swept through Tiptonville, Tenn., where they were staying at the time.
The two were visiting Stubblefield’s cousin and were staying at the Reelfoot Lake Cypress Point Resort when storm warnings started to roll in around 8:30 p.m.
“I kept looking out the window and it was raining, and it was a little windy, and I thought well, ‘That’s the worst of it,’” Hicks said.
She said she texted her daughter, Alyson Hicks, who was in High Ridge that night, sending her a message, in a joking way and making light of the warning, that she loved her.
Hicks said the warnings continued, though, and it wasn’t too long before she sent her daughter another text saying, “I am now seriously telling you all I love you. I’m not joking right now.”
“All of a sudden it got quiet and I looked at (Stubblefield), and I said, ‘Get your shoes on; get in the bathroom now,’ and no sooner did we get in the bathroom, and I shut the door, than the lights went out,” she said.
Hicks said the two were staying on the bottom floor of the two-story resort building, which started shaking.
“It sounded like a train, literally sounded like a train,” she said. Hicks said it was very loud, and it was hard to breathe.
“I’m sure it was like a minute, minute and a half, but it seemed like hours,” she said. “We just kept praying, ‘Please stop, please make it stop, make it stop.’ I really didn’t think we were going to get out of there alive.”
Four people died in Tennessee from the storm last weekend, two of those in Lake County, where the resort is located.
After the storm passed, Hicks said the ceiling and TV from the room above were in their room.
“God had to have his hand on us somehow because we shouldn’t have walked out of there,” she said.
Hicks said she could not get a call through to 911 and had to climb out of the room.
“I don’t know what I climbed on, but I had to get out because I had to go get somebody to get help because (Stubblefield) is oxygen dependent and I was starting to smell some kind of gas in the room.”
Hicks said local firefighters and police officers helped them get out and get to an area high school to stay the night.
Stubblefield described the experience as “unbelievable.”
“I’m not one to get worked up over things, but that scared the hell out of me,” he said.
Stubblefield’s 2015 Ford F-150 was totaled in the storm. “It just looks like it was run over by a train,” he said.
Hicks and Stubblefield said they rented a U-Haul so they knew they could get home, but they were not sure how they were going to get the damaged truck home.
To the rescue
Hicks, who has worked for more than four years as an administrative assistant for the Cedar Hill Fire Protection District, reached out to her boss, Cedar Hill Fire Chief Mick Fischer.
“Actually, I texted him after the storm because I was scared out of my mind,” she said. “I’m like, ‘God, I wish you guys could be down here to save us.’”
Fischer said he immediately knew he had to go help, so he and Cedar Hill Fire Lt. Charles Malson drove down with a trailer on Sunday to bring back Stubblefield’s truck.
Fischer said he had responded to the De Soto tornado in 2003, but he could not believe the damage from the tornado in Tennessee.
“I can honestly say, I’ve never seen damage like that in my life,” he said.
Hicks said it is hard to describe how grateful she is for Fischer and Malson.
“You’re overwhelmed because you don’t even know where to start and he took the biggest burden away from us by coming down and saving us like that,” she said. “There are no words to describe.”
Stubblefield said he, too, is grateful.
“I’ve never in my life had anybody do anything like that for us,” he said.
Stubblefield’s mobility scooter also was damaged in the storm, and Fischer currently is working to repair it.
“There are no words to describe the gratitude,” Hicks said.