JW USA: Ivey says Lee County will recover after ‘monster’ tornado; search for victims drags on

[Guest Indiana]

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said this afternoon search and rescue efforts today in the Beauregard community have so far not revealed any more fatalities from Sunday’s tornadoes, with the death toll standing at 23, but Jones said “dozens” of people are still unaccounted for.

“The search teams have worked the areas of the most significant damage,” Jones said. "I am pleased to report we have not recovered any further victims from the areas that we have initially searched. But I want to offer a caveat with that, that we have not completed our searches."

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The tornado ravaged a small neighborhood in Smiths Station on Lee County 430, where Greg Molinari and many of his neighbors sorted through the damage on Monday morning. Molinari was upbeat even though his home was destroyed. He said he and his wife, Susan, survived the storm because they took his daughter-in-law’s advice and put large cooking pots over their heads as makeshift helmets.

“The sirens were going off quite frequently and we said we better take this very seriously. That was about three o’clock,” Molinari said.

“And my wife and I received a text from my daughter in law. She said get in the bathroom and put pots on your head. Well, the bathroom wasn’t a great idea because it’s an exterior wall. But we went in the hallway, which is a small, confined area here. And we did put big cooking pots over our head. Saved our lives. The ceiling crashed in on us.”

The tornado ripped the roof off Molinari’s house.

“And we were trapped in there,” Molinari said. “We couldn’t get out even though we were OK. Our neighbor across the street here, he came screaming over, ‘Is anybody in there? Is anybody in there?’ We said, ‘Yeah. We can’t get out.’ He dug us out.”

Molinari said he and his wife then rode out the storm at the neighbor’s house.

“Him and his wife, his daughter and his dog and us, we all hunkered down in there," Molinari said.

Molinari said another neighbor he didn’t know helped in their rescue.

Molinari said he had reason to be positive despite the disaster.

“We have a very strong faith," Molinari said. "We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses. Our God Jehovah takes care of us. We believe he helped to protect us. He’ll also help us recover from all this.”

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/03/lee-county-alabama-tornadoes-many-are-still-missing.html