Editors of Readers Digest - Alive!: Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People Who Survived Deadly Tornadoes, Avalanches, Shipwrecks, and More

A READERS DIGEST BOOK

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Alive! : extraordinary stories of ordinary people who survived deadly tornadoes, avalanches, shipwrecks and more! / editors of Readers Digest.

pages cm

Summary: Alive! is a heart-stopping collection of survival stories from the archives of Readers Digests Drama in Real Life series-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-62145-161-7 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-62145-162-4 (epub)

1. Disasters--Literary collections. 2. Disaster victims--Literary collections.

I. Readers Digest Association.

PN6071.D56A45 2014

808.8036--dc23

2013046437

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The will to survive is a primal human instinct and one that, we hope, will kick in exactly when we need it most. Whether we are adrenaline junkies looking for a rush or enjoying a mellow weekend outing, or perhaps just in the wrong place at the wrong time, we hope that when faced with a life-threatening situation we will be able to dig deep into our reserves and survive.

Readers Digest has chronicled such life and death tales in its iconic and popular feature Drama in Real Life. These stories have kept readers on the edge of their seats and inspired many with images of resilience and bravery that maintain our faith in the human spirit. Youll be awed as you watch a teenager escort his eighty year old grandmother through a raging wildfire to safety; youll hold your breath as a mountain climber falls into a crevasse on Mt. McKinley and must drag himself to safety, knowing his partner did not survive the fall; and your heart will pound as a hiker comes face to face with an angry mountain lion on a lonely trail.

We hope youll enjoy these timeless adventure stories and be reminded that even ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things when their lives are on the line.

National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center Norman, Oklahoma Saturday, April 1, 2006 11:59 p.m.: Warm front extending across Missouri into the southeastern U.S.... Moist, unstable air, mid-Mississippi region. Possible tornadoes.

Sunday, April 2, 2006, 5:30 p.m. Dyer County, Tennessee.

The picture windows in Rick and Laura Gregorys home looked west over cotton fields toward the Mississippi River and the boot heel of Missouri beyond. As the sun went down, it played tricks with the sky, painting it yellow and orange. The news crawl at the bottom of the TV screen in the Gregorys family room said Tornado watch.

Laura was in the kitchen preparing an early dinner. Her husband, Rick, a patrol sergeant for Dyer County, had just come off duty. If a storm struck, hed have to go back out again. She wanted to get some food in him first.

Then the newscasters came on to report that a tornado had hit Marmaduke, Arkansas, 60 miles to the west. When they started talking about Caruthersville, directly across the Mississippi, Rick was sure they were in for it. He quickly finished his supper. Without a storm cellar, people said, the bathroom was the safest place. He turned to Laura and told her to get theirs ready. If you hunker down in the tub with a cell phone, a candle and a battery-powered radio, youll be okay. What Rick was about to see over the next 48 hours would change that belief forever.

The previous weekend, Vanice and Larry Parker had moved into their new ranch house with cypress wood siding on Meacham Road. Theyd taken their time building, adding custom touches to the house and a large cabinetry workshop in the side yard. Having lived down the road for ten years, they already knew their new neighbors by sightJanie King, the Hickmans, and the McAndrews.

Vanice and Larry had spent most of Sunday rearranging furniture, trying different configurations for the dining and living room areas. They unpacked boxes and planted a few trees. The day was unusually warm for April, so Vanice opened the windows in the living room. There was a nice breeze blowing in the afternoon.

At about 6:30, Larry announced, I think we should call it a night. Lets get our baths, fix something to eat and watch some cable.

Being so busy with the move, it seemed like ages since they had just sat down to relax. They hurried, Vanice to take a bath, Larry a shower, before they caught the film starting at 7 p.m. Grabbing snacks, they settled down on the sofa in pajamas just as the movie Crash began.

Climbing into his patrol car, Rick Gregory then pulled onto Route 103 West, which ran straight as a chalk line through fallow cotton fields seven miles to the Mississippi River. He heard a fellow deputy on the radio calling Dispatch, asking if there were any warnings out yet. Warnings was the term that was used when radar readings indicated tornado conditions. No, Dispatch answered, no warnings yet.

Rick got on the radio and told the team, Im heading down to the Great River Road to watch. As he drove, Rick began to study the sky. He had never seen anything like it, never had such a ringside seat right on the edge of a super cell T-storm. It was as if the road was acting as a boundary.

The entire sky to the left, southward, was a pleasant, warm blue with golden sunlight. But everything to the north was a roiling, pitch-black mass of the meanest-looking cloud cover hed ever seen. He pulled up at the intersection of 103 and Great River Road, and just sat and watched. Two ducks flew by, moving with the wind. To Rick it looked like they were going 100 miles an hour. He craned his neck out the car window and stared at the clouds. He could make out a distinct clockwise rotation taking shape.

Samantha Stanfield had been monitoring the weather reports all day. Her home was in Dyersburg, but her father, Joseph, Sr., 69, lived alone up on Harness Road in a place hed spent his whole life. His wife and parents were buried in a little graveyard out back. Because it was east of a bluff, his house had always managed to avoid the strafing of storms.

Local lore held that tornadoes were forced to go around the bluff to the north or south. So whenever bad weather was afoot, Samantha and her husband would pack up the kids and drive the seven miles to ride out the storm at Poppys. His house was the center for all family gatherings anyway. Holiday dinners, out-of-towners visits, birthday partiesany special occasion would always be hosted at Poppys. It was family headquarters. And Poppys neighborsSid Bruce, Steve Harness, and the Taylorshad grown up together. They were as close as family.

But by early evening the reports coming in had Samantha concerned. Tornadoes had touched down in points that made a direct line toward Harness Road. When the sirens in Dyersburg went off, she called her father.

Ah, Poppy said. Itll never hit out here.

Then the line went dead. Samantha called him right back. It rang and rang. Finally he answered.

Honey! Poppy said, urgency in his voice. Im going to have to get off here! I think the roofs about to come off the house.