BEAURGARD, ALA. – A former Jamestown resident is grateful to be alive after her home took a direct hit from the tornado that charged through Alabama at in excess of 136 miles an hour.
Becky Boyd, who lived in Jamestown at one time, shared her harrowing experience with WNYNewsNow Monday morning, saying it’s an experience she never wants to have again.
“We heard our sirens coming across the phone saying we were under a tornado warning and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do,” Boyd said. “My sister (Debbie) called and says she’s watching the news and says ‘Are you in your safe place?’ and I said ‘No’ and she turned the volume up on the TV, and we live just off of Lee Road 38 and what I heard was Lee Road 36 and Lee Road 38 get in your safe place now.”
Boyd knows she and her husband Kevin are lucky to be alive after her trailer took a direct hit from the tornado.
“I was headed into the closet and next thing I know my glasses went flying off my face, I flipped head over tail and I was upside down. And I was on the phone with her (sister) still the whole time saying ‘Get off the line. Call 911, it hit us. I don’t know where I am,” she said.
Her husband dove under the bed and during the storm attack a chest of drawers flew across the room and landed on the bed he was under.
As for the trailer, “It’s on its roof. The whole back-end where the bathroom is, I was in the closet, the whole end of that wall and the corner of it is off. The only thing holding the floor from collapsing in on that end is the roof of the closet that I was going into and the chest of drawers flew across the room and landed on the bed that Kevin was under, so he’s got more scrapes. I’ve got some bruises and scrapes but he’s got more scrapes.”
They are staying at a friend’s house while they start rebuilding their lives.
As for her attitude facing this struggle, Boyd said she is “100 percent grateful. I saw a thing on Facebook the other day, a non-bucket list of things you never want to do or go through again, this would be one.”
She knows things could have been worse for her family.
“Based on our neighborhood, we are better off than some. Our very next door neighbor and the one above them have no house, just totally disintegrated. There’s head injuries of one of the children, one of the guys passed away,” she said. “It’s much wider spread and further around us and there’s tons of damage.”
She said, as of Monday morning, the death toll had risen to 23.
“We heard 23 this morning. They’re out with drones this morning looking for rescue, looking for heat,” she said. “There’s trailers down beyond us that have no damage. There’s downed fences, windshields broken.”
She said a modular home was moved 25 or 30 feet into the road.
Leave a Reply