HEROES

How Workers Saved Nursing Home Residents From Tornado

The 67 elderly residents in the Arkansas facility took a direct hit.

Workers in an Arkansas nursing home that took a direct hit by a tornado saved the helpless residents by gathering them together in a hallway, barricading glass doors with mattresses, covering their bodies with their own, and leading hymns to stay calm. That’s according to nurse Barbara Richards, who told The Washington Post she was working at the Monette, Arkansas, facility Friday when she saw the twister headed straight for them.

“It hit and blew the glass out of the windows in the facility,” Richards said. “You could see the rotation inside the building.” The roof was blown off, and the building was flooded by its sprinkler system, and some residents were buried under debris or pinned against walls—but only one of the 67 residents was killed. “It felt like being in the Titanic while it was sinking,” storm chaser Jordan Hall, who showed up to help, told the Post.