- Gutherie, Okla - Tornadoes are one of
nature,s most powerful forces. Imagine being swept away by the winds of
a funnel cloud, helpless and out of control. That's what happened to 57-year-old
Paul Kiespert. "It took me out of there. I don't know how it done
it. You know ... but ... I mean, you,re helpless," Kiespert said.
-
- It took less than four seconds. With
Monday evening's giant storm fast approaching, Kiespert took cover in his
hallway, lying on the floor of his house in Crescent, Okla. In a flash,
the tornado ripped the 98-year-old home off its foundation.
-
- "It twisted to the left and twisted
to the right, and three or four seconds after that, it was all over with,"
Kiespert said. Then it exploded.
-
- "When I started to move, I thought
to myself, 'I bought the farm tonight,'" the mechanic said.
-
- Caught up in a funnel cloud, Kiespert
began spinning with all sorts of debris, including two barbed wire fences
and a mulberry tree. He says he flew through the air, landing over a quarter
of a mile from where he started.
-
- "I'm just bruised up, banged up,
beat up," he said. "Took a pretty good whooping."
-
- Neighbor Vicky Davis found Kiespert and
tried to make him walk. He told her was he ready to lay down and die. Finally
rescuers arrived. Paramedic Teresa Steinberg cut off Kiespert's clothes
to treat the wounds.
-
- "Inside his overalls was lots of
weeds and dirt that were all inside and inside his boots," Steinberg
recalled. "It was shocking."
-
- Paramedics brought Kiespert to Logan
Hospital in Gutherie. He was so caked with mud and blood that his wife,
Linda, couldn't see his skin. The former Marine, with three broken ribs,
stitches in his head and hand, and too many cuts and bruises to count,
knows he's lucky.
-
- "The good Lord was looking after
somebody," he said.
|
