(Rolling Fork) When the lights at Chuck’s Dairy Bar started flickering and the skies suddenly roared, Tracy Harden knew the tornado predicted Friday night in her small Mississippi town was going to be a lot more dangerous than she thought .
She shouted “Fridge!” and with her husband and employees, she ran towards the huge rectangle of gray metal that ended up saving nine lives.
A little earlier, it had rained a little, a little windy, the sirens hadn’t sounded. So “we weren’t overly worried,” she told AFP on Monday in Rolling Fork, cap on her head, from the land on which her establishment stood.
The tornado that struck Mississippi on Friday evening for more than 150 km killed at least 25 people and caused immense damage, according to the authorities of this southern state of the United States.
PHOTO ROGELIO V. SOLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tracy Hardin Chuck’s Dairy Bar Destroyed
The cook, Barbara Nell McReynolds-Pinkins, 52 – “Miss P”, as she is affectionately known – had just finished preparing a steak with fries and salad for a customer when things suddenly changed.
“It was terrifying,” she told AFP, still trembling. The sound of the wind, the lightning, the rain.
On her phone, Tracy Harden, 48, receives messages from relatives, warning her of an exceptionally violent tornado.
“The lights flashed, I yelled ‘fridge’,” she describes. But even before her husband grabbed the refrigerator door, the room was plunged into darkness.
Soaring roof
“He pushed us into the fridge and I was shouting everyone’s names to make sure we had everyone,” she adds, unable to contain her emotion.
The wind is so strong that her husband almost loses control of the door. But they absolutely have to fold it down to protect themselves while keeping it barely ajar so as not to be blocked inside if the storm were to drag on.
At that time, “he said, ‘I can see the sky.’ That meant our roof was gone,” says Tracy Harden.
For a long time—the two women can’t remember how long this ordeal lasted—the nine are huddled together, pushed toward the metal shelves filled with milk and meat.
“We are agitated in all directions, the refrigerator moves, we shout, we cry, we pray. And suddenly it just stopped,” says M.me Harden.
Her husband tries to open the door, which seems stuck. She calls the 911 emergency number, they are screaming for help hoping someone will hear them.
And that’s where the customer for whom Miss P cooked the steak comes in.
“God Saved Us”
“He had broken his arm and somehow managed to clear the debris in front of the door. He opened it and got us all out,” Tracy Harden says gratefully.
Outside is desolation. Around them, all the buildings were blown up, flattened. The two motels that stood near the restaurant and which also belong to Tracy Harden and her husband have disappeared.
PHOTO ROGELIO V. SOLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tracy and Tim Hardin
“God saved us” and Tracy Harden was his instrument, breathes Barbara Nell McReynolds-Pinkins.
How did the restaurant owner have the presence of mind to think of the huge refrigerator as a shelter?
“I’ve always heard that if you’re in a restaurant and there’s a fridge, go to the fridge. It just came back to me,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
For Tracy Harden, it is still too early to think about the aftermath, insurance, reconstruction. “It’s the least of our worries” in the face of the devastation and the human impact of the disaster, she explains.
But what is certain is that “we will be back”, and on the same location, she said.
As for the refrigerator, “we are going to cover it with bronze, we are going to make it all beautiful! she adds with a laugh. “He saved our lives! »