“Miracle” Baby Found Cradled In Nearby Tree After Tornado Sweeps Him Away From Home In Clarksville
Image Credit: Caitlyn Moore / GoFundMe
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A baby was found cradled in a nearby tree after a December 9th tornado swept him away from his home in Clarksville, Tennessee.
The EF-3 tornado that touched down on Fort Campbell in Kentucky before intensifying as it moved south, reaching Clarksville and other areas in Tennessee, left a path of destruction 600 yards wide and remained on the ground for 43 miles.
The family of 4-month-old Lord experienced the horrifying power of the tornado up close when 150-mile-an-hour winds ripped off the roof of their trailer and took the baby as well.
Sydney Moore, Lord’s mother, was home with her fiancé and their two children and had just put the boys down for a nap when disaster hit the mobile home park where they lived.
As the walls began to shake, Moore and her fiancé, Aramis Youngblood, both ran to protect a child, each sleeping in different areas of the trailer. Moore, who was closest to 1-year-old Princeton, jumped on him to shelter him while Youngblood tried to wrestle the baby’s bassinet from the tornado.
Moore told WSMV, “He was just holding onto the bassinet the whole time, and they went into circles, he said, and then they got thrown.”
The tornado picked the trailer up off its foundation, before throwing it and picking it up again. When it was over, Moore was trapped under a collapsed wall with her 1-year-old but managed to push herself and Princeton free.
Calling to Youngblood, Moore asked where Lord was but he didn’t know. The couple searched for at least 10 minutes in the pouring rain, fearing the worst, before finding the baby a few yards from the wreckage of their home. Lord was lying inside a fallen tree. While the baby appeared to have a gash on the side of his face, he was otherwise unharmed. The cut on his ear had to be glued shut but by some miracle he suffered only a minor concussion from the ordeal.
“It had to have been God,” said Moore.
Youngblood is recovering with a broken arm and shoulder while the community rallies around the young family. Having lost everything they owned in the tornado, they will need to completely start over as well as find new housing.
On the GoFundMe page that Moore’s sister started that has received over $100 thousand in donations, she said that they hope to buy a house as they no longer feel comfortable living in a trailer.
Three people lost their lives in Clarksville and three more later the same day in Madison.
In Clarksville, Arlan Garrick Coty, a 4th-grader whose house was in the direct path of the tornado, was killed, along with Donna Allen, 59, of Florida, and Stephen Kwaah Hayes, 34, of Clarksville.
The Madison victims were also residents of a mobile home community. Nashville Police identified them as Joseph Dalton, 37, Floridema Gabriel Perez, 31, and her 2-year-old son Anthony Elmer Mendez.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
