As tornadoes descended on Mississippi Friday evening, homeowners and workers at a Rolling Fork diner survived extreme winds by sheltering collectively within the restaurant’s walk-in fridge. The remainder of the restaurant was fully destroyed, photographs present.
The group of eight individuals huddled contained in the walk-in cooler at Chuck’s Dairy Bar may really feel highly effective winds pushing the fridge alongside the bottom, proprietor Tracy Harden informed USA TODAY. Harden, 48, answered a telephone quantity listed on-line for the diner Saturday.
Her husband Tim, workers and some clients knew the storm was coming Friday evening, Harden stated, and have been making an attempt to hunt shelter on the diner.
“Unexpectedly the lights flickered and any individual hollered, ‘Cooler!’” and everybody rushed inside whereas her husband fought towards the wind to shut the fridge door, Harden stated.
“Earlier than the door closed, he may see the sky,” she stated. “It hit that quick.”
“Simply as he obtained it closed, he stated, ‘The roof is gone,'” Harden stated.
TORNADO UPDATES: Biden calls devastation ‘heartbreaking’
WHAT WE KNOW:Mississippi tornadoes trigger demise, destruction
A buyer who made it by way of the storm cleared particles away from the fridge door in order that Harden and her seven companions may get out after the twister had handed.
Everybody who had been inside was OK, Harden stated.
Extra about Chuck’s Dairy Bar
Harden and her husband purchased the decades-old diner 16 years in the past, and it was a hub for the Rolling Fork neighborhood, she stated. By Saturday morning, the beloved gathering spot had been fully destroyed and the one issues left standing have been the fridge and a toilet, the place yet one more individual hid to outlive the twister.
“I care a lot for my city, and our enterprise is the place to go, not simply to eat, however to be liked on and be comforted throughout something,” she stated.
Nighttime tornadoes may be particularly lethal
Nighttime tornadoes are twice as more likely to be lethal as daytime tornadoes, scientists report. A 2008 examine revealed by Northern Illinois College professors Walker Ashley and Andrew Krmenec discovered that nighttime tornadoes made up solely 27% of all tornadoes from 1950 to 2005, however have been accountable for 39% of all twister deaths.
Contributing: Doyle Rice