JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville woman in Tennessee for work caught the rear end of a massive storms system that has left dozens of people dead.
Concetta Leanza said she got lucky but had to brace herself when the storms headed her way.
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She said the experience was like something out of a movie, especially hearing those piercing sirens in the street.
“It sounded like that siren that goes off in the movie, ‘Purge.’ I never heard that in real-life before,” Leanza said.
Early reports say a series of storms ripped through several states.
It tore through homes and warehouses.
The National Weather Service said the storm spawned a long-track tornado with its path lasting anywhere between 160 and 220 miles.
Leanza was in her hotel when she first heard the news of the storm in Kentucky and learned it was heading for Tennessee next.
“That made it a lot more real. It wasn’t just rain, wind, or the possibility of a tornado, at that point it was real, a tornado actually hit and people actually lost their lives.”
But Leanza was blessed in a lucky twist of fate. As the storm approached the hotel where she is stayong...,
“It basically went around us which is lucky for me but unlucky for them and that’s the craziest part,” she said.
The death toll of 36 across five states includes six people in Illinois, where an Amazon facility was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed; and two in Missouri.
Meteorologists said Kentucky was hit the hardest.