Boise woman's family survives twister
<p>Wheelchairs salvaged from the wreckage of the Greenbriar nursing home sit in the facility’s parking lot in Joplin, Mo., Tuesday. At least 116 people were killed and hundreds more injured when a tornado cut a destructive path through Joplin on Sunday evening.</p>
BOISE (AP) - Sunday's Joplin, Mo., tornado touched down 1,500 miles away from Kelly Heuer. But that didn't stop the horror of the event from reaching the Boise woman.
For four hours of the tragic afternoon, Heuer may have been more scared than her parents and two of her children who lived through the deadly storm. Her daughter Stephanie Alba-Reed called from Joplin with news of the devastation and the word that Heuer's son Jonathan Alba could not be contacted. Both Stephanie, 17, and Jonathan, 19, formerly lived in Boise.
"The only way I can describe it is (a) bring-you-to-your-knees kind of terror," Heuer said.
It turns out Jonathan, who worked at a Sam's Club when the tornado hit, had sent a text message to his grandparents with the news that he was safe. But Heuer's parents, who Jonathan and Stephanie live with, didn't get the text. Meanwhile, Jonathan tried to drive through a ravaged Joplin in the wake of the storm. Many streets were impassable.
"There were people everywhere just walking on the street," Jonathan said Monday from Joplin. "I saw what I thought were dead bodies . I was actually kind of terrified. I didn't know what to do."
Heuer's parents rode out the storm in the basement of a church that the tornado tore apart.
"They didn't really know what was going on, but their ears kept popping and they kept hearing these ripping sounds," Heuer said.
Stephanie hid in a friend's storm shelter as the tornado passed. Jonathan said luck was on his side because the tornado cut through a part of town between where he worked and where he lived.
As Jonathan drove through Joplin minutes after the storm hit, he saw an injured older man with an oxygen tank.
"(He was) cut up with glass all over him," Jonathan said.
Jonathan picked him up in his car and tried to take him to a hospital, but blocked streets prevented him. He took the man to the man's home instead.
Stephanie, who attended Mountain View and Borah high schools, described parts of the city to her mother as "just completely flat."
"She was pretty devastated by coming across bodies," Heuer said of her daughter.
Heuer's parents and children worked Monday to prepare their home to accommodate church friends whose homes were damaged in the tornado. Jonathan planned later on going to an area of town where medical personnel took care of the injured to see if they needed help.
"We were very much blessed, our family," Heuer said. "And they're turning around and trying to help."