9-year-old speaks about saving his parents after tornado
DICKSON, Okla. (KFOR) — KFOR continues to follow stories of survival from victims of a tornado outbreak that hit the small community of Dickson just east of Ardmore.
Last week, News Four’s Joleen Chaney sat down with nine-year-old Branson Baker and his father, Wayne Baker, after a tornado threw their truck off a road and trapped Branson’s parents.
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“I step outside, and when I did it was very quiet and still,” Wayne Baker said. “I just got a bad feeling.”
Instinct. A gut feeling Wayne Baker, his wife, Lindy, and their son, Branson, jumped in their truck and headed for a neighbor’s storm shelter.
“We saw the tornado coming in that direction. We immediately got out of the path as we thought, headed the opposite direction of it. We did not know it, but it had turned in direction,” Wayne said. “All of a sudden, the leaves were as thick as the rain.”
In a pelting, sideways rain, the tornado uprooted a tree and hit the Baker’s truck like a baseball bat.
“The roof collapsed in on both of us. Lindy was partially ejected from the vehicle. She went through the windshield and remained halfway into the vehicle and halfway out,” Wayne said. “It was pretty horrific.”
Branson was in the backseat.
“I look back at my son, and I realize that he is ok,” Wayne said.
Wayne and Lindy were pinned. Both of their backs were broken as well as Wayne’s neck, sternum, ribs, and arm. He also lost a finger. Lindy also suffered a broken neck, jaw, ribs, hand, and a punctured lung.
“All I could do was stay calm for her and let her know that she was ok,” Wayne said. “She was alive and that we would make it out of there.”
“It was very scary,” Branson said.
“As brave as he is ,he ran straight to his mother realizing he wasn’t able to help his mother at that point, he knew he needed more help. He came around to see if maybe he could help me get out. Seeing that he wasn’t able to do that, we spoke through the door, and I just gave him instructions to run and get help,” Wayne said.
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And he did. Branson ran more than a mile in the dark, dodging debris and power lines, moments after a tornado nearly killed them.
“I just said, ‘Don’t die, and I was off,'” Branson said.
“The venture he went on to do what he did is miraculous,” Wayne said. “The good Lord was with him from start to finish.”
“I was just trying to get help,” Branson said. “That’s all I was trying to do.”
Branson had a baseball game the day following the accident. He hit a homerun and had seven RBI’s. He is staying with his grandparents, and his father his traveling back and forth between Dickson and the hospital where Branson’s mother is recovering. There is a trust account set up for the Baker family at the First Bank and Trust.
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