The family heard the tornado warning on the radio. They turned on the television; the radar map showed the storm was headed for their town. The wind picked up and rattled the windows. The sky became dark.

They went out on the front porch and looked at the sky. And then they saw it: a funnel cloud swaying along the ground like a hungry elephant's trunk sucking up everything in its path.

They made a run for it -- the father, the mother and two small children. They lay flat in a nearby ditch. They heard the roar of a freight train, which is the characteristic sound of a tornado. The rain came down in torrents. Small tree limbs rained down upon them. Then they heard a loud crashing noise as if something big was being torn apart. The father dared to raise his head and look up. To his dismay, he …