2 babies survive after tornado carries them away in bathtub

HOPKINS CO., Ky. (WFIE) - A Hopkins County woman was looking after her two infant grandchildren Friday night.

When the deadly tornado took aim at her neighborhood, Clara Lutz put the 15-month-old and 3-month-old in the bathtub with a blanket, a pillow, and a Bible.

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

The tub, ripped out of the floor, with the two babies inside. With the darkness from the tornado, Lutz feared the babies were gone.

“I was looking everywhere to see where the tub may be. I had no clue at all where these babies was. All I could say was ‘Lord, please bring my babies back to me safely. Please, I beg thee,’” said Lutz.

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.

Two sheriff’s deputies and two community members were out in the wreckage.

In their search through the debris, they found the overturned bathtub, with the babies inside.

“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. They brought him to me. He had a goose egg on the back of his head, we didn’t know what was wrong,” said Lutz.

Lutz says Dallas’ brain was bleeding. He was taken to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, but before he even arrived, the bleeding stopped. Both children were found in the front yard, under the bathtub, not even wet from the pouring rain. Both children were alive.

Lutz says the house the parents of the babies live in is on the north end of the county. It was almost untouched by the tornado.

She says she doesn’t care about the material loss and credits God for saving her grandchildren’s lives.

Copyright 2021 WFIE. All rights reserved.