WHY YOU NEVER ASSUME PERIOD!!!

[Guest guest]

OK I'm an OPERATIONS kind of guy, always have been always will be and this

is something that one of them old salts that taught me back in the days of

horse drawn ambulances taught to me and that I then taught to anyone that

listened but this story rings home the point of NEVER assuming and never NOT

looking, etc!!!

Baby Found Amid Tornado Devastation

By BILL POOVEY,

AP

Posted: 2008-02-07 21:25:02

CASTALIAN SPRINGS, Tenn. (Feb. 7) - At first, rescuers thought it was a

doll. Then it moved. In a grassy pasture strewn with toys, splintered lumber

and

bricks tossed by the tornado's widespread wrath, 11-month old Kyson Stowell

was lying face down in the mud, 150 yards from where his home once stood.

" It looked like a baby doll, " said Harmon, a firefighter who had

already combed the field once looking for survivors. Then he checked for a

pulse.

" He was laying there motionless ... and he took a breath of air and started

crying. "

The field had already been combed once for survivors, and finding anyone

alive seemed improbable. Hours after the storm, there was devastation

everywhere: The body of the boy's mother was found in the same field, houses

were wiped

to concrete slabs and a brick post office was blown to bits. But except for

a few scrapes, Kyson was fine.

At a makeshift shelter for storm victims at Hartsville Pike Church of Christ

in nearby Gallatin, the Rev. Doyle Farris said the child was a reminder that

people " should never give up, even in the midst of the worst storm. "

" If you look, you can find an inspiration or a bright spot, " he said. " The

child will always be a reminder in this community of that message. "

Kyson's story emerged as a tale of hope amid spectacular misery as residents

in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas tried to piece

their lives back together after the nation's deadliest twister rampage in two

decades killed 58 people.

The extent of the damage was still being tallied Thursday, two days after

the storms.

Federal and state emergency teams dashed into the hardest-hit areas, along

with utility workers and insurance claims representatives. President Bush, who

said he called the governors of the affected states to offer support,

planned to visit Tennessee on Friday.

Though homes were destroyed, communities flattened and loved ones lost,

there were signs everywhere that recovery, while far away, was possible: Food

and

clothes began pouring in for the homeless. The morning coffee was brewing at

a service station.

In Greenville, Ky., 18-year-old Oakley gave birth to a healthy

7-pound, 1-ounce son in the dark soon after the storm knocked out power at

Muhlenberg Community Hospital.

As the lights went out, doctors " hollered 'flashlights,' and nurses took off

and got one, " the baby's grandmother, Vicki , said.

There were countless stories of people relieved to be alive. Krueger,

a 49-year-old electrician, opened the door to look out of the 100-year-old

home he was restoring and the wind sucked the door from his hand. He dived onto

the ground " as if I was sliding into first. " The house was pulled out from

under him - and when it was over, he was on bare ground.

" It was like God was holding my leg and beating the (expletive) out of me

for everything I've done in my life, " said Krueger, of Lafayette. " Maybe I

tried to question God too many times, but the bottom line is something kept me

there. "

Charity efforts were beginning for those who lost their homes. A classroom

inside the Pleasant Field Full Gospel Church building in sville, Ky., was

filled with bags of clothes and a nearby kitchen was stuffed with donated

food, ready for residents displaced by the storm.

Many businesses were destroyed along Main Street in Gassville, Ark., but at

the Citgo Mini-Mart, coffee was brewing.

" That's been our main purpose in getting back up and running, to give people

a bit of hope that things are getting back to normal, " manager

Kingsolver said.

In Lafayette, all that remained of the Macon County Veterinary Hospital was

the brick front facade. But all the animals in the hospital - six dogs and 20

tropical fish - survived.

In Arkansas, 16 workers were in the middle of a tornado's path when the

storm hit the Rivertrail Inc. boat manufacturing plant. The workers were on the

job late to get a shipment of boats onto a tractor-trailer. One died, but 15

survived. The big rig was still there Thursday, part of a massive pile of

twisted debris, all that remained of the plant.

" Look at all that. Can you believe 15 people walked out of there? " plant

worker Aderholt said.

Back in Castalian Springs, there was good news to celebrate. Baby Kyson was

discharged from a hospital and was in the care of his grandparents. He had

scrapes and gashes on his cheek and by his big blue eyes, but otherwise was

fine. Clinging to his grandmother, he fussed a little - something he normally

does at naptime.

As word the tornado was coming spread through the community Tuesday, the

Stowells called their their 23-year-old daughter Kerri warning her to take

cover. In a phone call with her fiance's sister, Kerri said she was bracing for

the storm in the bathtub, clutching her baby to her side.

The phone cut out as Kay Stowell and her daughter spoke. Then came an

ominous voicemail - no words, just the sound of wind.

It took two hours for the Stowells to drive around the downed trees and

power lines and make the four-mile trip to Kerri's home- or what was left of

it.

It was during that time that rescuers Harmon and Karl Wegner decided to give

the pasture one last look.

When the Stowells made it to the scene, the first thing Stowell saw

was a firefighter holding the baby. Not long thereafter, another emergency

worker showed Stowell a photo of a body found nearby. He confirmed it was his

stepdaughter.

" If it had been both of them, I couldn't have handled it, " he said.

Kerri Stowell's fiance, 22-year-old , believed she tried to

keep her son safe as the storm closed in. " She would have given her life trying

to protect that baby, " he said.

The family has set up a trust fund to pay for Kyson Stowell's college

education. Checks may be sent to Sun Trust Bank, 1605 21st Ave. S., Nashville,

TN

37212. Or call .

Associated Press writers Dan Sewell and Lenz in Lafayette, Tenn.;

Marcus Kabel in Gassville, Ark.; and Schelzig in , Tenn.,

contributed

to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP

news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed

without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Louis N. Molino, Sr., CET

FF/NREMT-B/FSI/EMSI

Owner and President of LNM Emergency Services Consulting Services (LNMECS)

Freelance Consultant/Trainer/Author/Journalist/Fire Protection Consultant

LNMolino@...

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