By Dave Andrusko
It was a Christmas miracle. Out of the carnage and destruction from the tornado that ripped through parts of the Midwest , Tennessee River Valley, and Kentucky earlier this month, a quick-thinking grandmother saved her two grandbabies by sheltering them in a bathtub.
The miracle? The tornado ripped the bathtub out of the ground where it “was found in her yard, upside down, with the babies underneath,” The Associated Press reported. “Authorities from the sheriff’s office drove to the end of grandmother Clara Lutz’s driveway and reunited her with the two children.”
As the tornado approached, “All I could say was, ‘Lord please bring my babies back safely. Please, I beg thee,’” she remembered. “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,” according to WFIE-TV.
Lutz was babysitting 15-month-old Kaden and 3-month-old Dallas when she learned the tornado was headed directly toward them. “She said she put Kaden and Dallas in the bathtub, all the while praying for their safety,” she told the AP. “With them, she said she placed a Bible and blankets and pillows to protect them.”
After the tornado struck, Lutz went outside and searched for anyone who could help, Jordan Yaney reported
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.
“I just heard the sound of crying or screaming coming from a distance,” said Deputy Troy Blue.
Two of the men lifted the bathtub, while Deputy Trent Arnold and another man pulled the babies from the tub.
Body cam footage from the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office revealed the moment where the babies were found and returned to their grandmother.
“The sheriff came down,” Lutz told WFIE-TV. “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.”
Lutz’s whole house was stripped down to the foundation, but she told Yancey “She doesn’t care about the material loss and credits God for saving her grandchildren’s lives.”