Miraculous stories of survival emerge after one of the strongest
tornadoes in history tore through an Oklahoma suburb.An elderly woman
whose home was destroyed by the Oklahoma tornado found her pet dog among
the rubble during a live TV interview.
The footage of Barbara
Garcia came as fellow survivors began reliving the terror they felt
while winds of up to 200mph obliterated their neighbourhoods.
Mrs
Garcia was standing among the twisted wreckage of her home as she was
interviewed about her experiences by a reporter from CBS.
"I was sitting on the stool holding my dog," she said.
"This
was the game plan all through the years, to go in that little bathroom
(together). I rolled around a little bit and when it stopped I was right
there (and) that stove cooker is what I saw.
"I never lost
consciousness and I hollered for my little dog and he didn't answer, he
didn't come, so I know he's in here somewhere." But as she spoke, a
member of the camera crew spotted a dog's head poking out of the twisted
remains of her home.
Mrs Garcia is seen crouching down before exclaiming with joy as she spots her pet.
"Well
I thought God just answered one prayer to let me be OK but he answered
both of them," she said, before being led away from the ruins with her
dog.
Meanwhile, one mother who survived the storm described how
she and her children took refuge in their bath as the tornado tore their
house apart.
"My husband told us to get in the bathtub immediately and put on a mattress," she said.
She said she had to hold her daughter's hair to stop her slipping away when the tornado struck.
Another family locked themselves inside their cellar - only to have its door ripped open by the twister.
Ricky
Stover said: "We thought we'd die. We saw the latch coming undone and
we couldn't reach for it ... glass and debris started slamming on us."
Read the full story of when Barbara Garcia's dog emerges from the rubble in the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado
here