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Bro. & Sis. Akers Miraculous Recovery from a Tornado
After almost 19 years of pastoring at Landmark Apostolic Holiness Church in our home town of Dawson Springs, Kentucky, it was a happy occasion to turn the reins over to our son Rusty and his sweet wife Mandy at the start of the new year. As Senior Pastor, I looked forward to some traveling and evangelizing; that’s why we were in Clinton, Arkansas the first week of February. A Sunday to Tuesday ‘mini-revival’ with Pastor Wesley Norris, my wife’s cousin, was to be as followed by a few days of relaxation in nearby Branson, Missouri.
The almost balmy 72 degree weather on Monday was unusual for so early in the year, but welcome, nonetheless. Wednesday’s weather forecast was for quite different weather, however; cold with snow flurries. The transition from Monday’s warmth to Wednesday’s cold held the promise of some violent weather. On Tuesday, we continued to enjoy the unseasonal warmth as we went about the day. After a meal at a local restaurant with Bro. and Sis. Clarence Norris, (Sis. Akers’ aunt and uncle, who had so graciously opened their beautiful home to us), we returned to their house. I prepared for the evening service while my wife visited with her aunt. After a short nap, I began readying for church. We were totally oblivious to the weather outside, and unaware that it had change drastically in the past hour or two.
A phone call alerted us that a tornado was bearing down on Clinton. I spread open the venetian blinds, and was shocked to see total darkness beyond. We hurriedly made plans to get in the crawl space beneath the house, but first we had to get our shoes! In a matter of seconds we realized that we had no time to do anything. The windows of the house began imploding as though someone was shooting them with a shotgun. As the broken glass shards lacerated my head, I said, “It’s here!” As Sis. Akers lunged for the bathroom beyond the hallway, she prayed “Jesus, Help us, we’re in trouble!” As the bathroom door slammed, I was knocked to the floor. I then felt the house being picked up off the foundation, and I slid down the hallway into a bedroom. As I entered the room, my last thoughts were, “Is this the way it ends?” All of this, thanks to a direct hit from an F-4 Tornado.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I came to I was pinned under the rubble. Being claustrophobic, I did some tall praying in a big hurry! I was able to get my feet free, then I could turn my hips, allowing me to crawl out of the two story house that was now flattened into a pile of rubble about four feet tall. I was alive, but then the reality of the situation bore down on me; I had to go find my wife, knowing that she was probably dead. Making my way around to the front of what was left of the house, I screamed her name until I finally got a response. She said, “I’m here-I’m fine”, but in that traumatic setting what my mind heard was, “I’m here-I’m dying”. Horror stricken, I called out again, and again, until I finally spotted her. She was sitting in the rubble with no roof or walls over her- God had placed her in a bathroom cabinet, and even the rain couldn’t touch her! I walked out across the rubble to where she was, and together we walked back over the broken glass, hissing gas lines and smashed memories to safety.
Sis. Norris had gone to her closet to get her shoes, and was knocked down by the force of the wind, while Bro. Norris dashed into the bedroom to get a flashlight. The house lifted up over her, but he was carried with it as we were hurled in the air about forty feet into the trees beside where the house had set. Bro. Norris was buried under a huge pile of rubble. By the time I had come to and retrieved my wife, Sis. Norris returned to the house from rounding up neighbors and passers by in cars. About six men converged on the rubble and called for Bro. Clarence. From deep in the debris he answered, and flashed his light to guide them as they dug down to free him.
Incredibly, an ambulance was already at the scene. It was on its way from Mountain Home to Little Rock when it came to where the tornado had crossed the road. Downed trees and power lines blocked its path, so the driver pulled off Highway 65 on to Blossom Loop- we were at 298 Blossom Loop! As they put us in the ambulance and began emergency treatment, the men brought Bro. Clarence on a door they had pulled from the rubble, and we were the first (of many) to arrive at the Hospital!
Sis. Akers had a broken hand and ribs, and extensive bruises. I also had a broken hand, probably ribs and numerous aches and pains, on top of which I developed pneumonia. It took a few weeks for the battering we took to heal, but by then it was evident that I had sustained damage to my right shoulder. I has surgery on that on March 31st, and am now well on my way to complete recovery. Sis. Norris had a bruised lung, along with all the other aches and pains, and Bro. Norris is recovering from the beating he took at the hands of the storm.
In assessing the damage the next day, observers were shocked that anyone in the house had survived, let alone four of us! They said, “When a house goes airborne, people do not come out alive.” But, God defied a lot of odds for us that day! Had we gone to the crawlspace, as we planned, we would have almost certainly been crushed by the concrete blocks and debris that fell there, but He kept His mighty protecting hand upon us!
God could have kept Daniel from the Lion’s den, and the Hebrew Children from the fire, and that would have been a great testimony, but He went with them through their storm, and that’s an even greater testimony! God could have kept us from this tornado, but I can truly say, He went with us through the storm! That’s an incredible testimony of His present power and love! Every day is a gift, but now that gift is even more special to us!