2 children, including newborn, survive after tornado carries them away in bathtub

MADISONVILLE, Ky. (WFIE/Gray News) - Two small children in Kentucky survived a tornado that ripped the bathtub they were in out of the floor.

Clara Lutz told WFIE she put her grandchildren, 15-month-old Kaden and 3-month-old Dallas, in the bathtub with a blanket, pillow and Bible just before the tornado hit their home.

“I felt the rumbling. I felt the shaking of the house,” Lutz said. “Next thing I knew, the tub had lifted, and it was out of my hands. I couldn’t hold on.”

The tornado happened at night, so Lutz was unable to locate her children in the immediate aftermath.

“I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be,” Lutz said. “All I could say was ‘Lord, please bring my babies back to me safely. Please, I beg thee.’”

Lutz’s whole house was stripped down to the foundation. In the chaos, the water tank from the tub hit her in the back of the head. Still, she went outside and searched for anyone who could help.

Both children were found in the front yard, under the bathtub, not even wet from the pouring rain.

“The sheriff came down. I got in the sheriff’s car down at the end of my driveway, and it wasn’t long after that that they opened up the door and brought me Kaden, my 15-month-old, and they brought me my three-month-old, baby Dallas,” Lutz said.

She says Dallas’ brain was bleeding. He was taken to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, but before he even arrived, the bleeding stopped.

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