Teen survives being thrown by tornado as it struck mobile home
A teenager is lucky to be alive after last Thursday’s tornado hit her trailer home and threw her 50 feet away.
Caylie Short, 15, and her family lived at Geiger Mobile Home Park in Lakeview when an EF-3 tornado ripped through, according to our news partners at WBNS.
“It was scary, I was confused,” Short said.
She said she was hiding beneath her mattress when her mom went to lock the door and suddenly started yelling.
“When I peeked out, the house started falling, and then I went to the wall like where our back door is, and I went to the ceiling, I covered my head,” Short said.
The tornado’s 150 mph winds flung Short and her mother, Amanda Gear, around as it ripped apart their home.
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“Then I remember, I heard my mom screaming and then I looked up and I was on a road. I looked around and I didn’t know where I was,” Short said.
Gear said she found her daughter about fifty feet from their trailer on state Route 33.
“I couldn’t move my legs, we tried walking and I couldn’t,” Short said. “She broke the same bone in both ankles, but the left one was sticking out,” Gear said.
Short was rushed to Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine before being transferred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus where she was rushed into surgery.
Gear is still struggling with visible bruises of her own all over her face and body.
“Being thrown around in there I think is just what beat me up,” Gear said.
Gear said it was just like what she’s seen in the movies.
”I can remember looking up when I was trying to get up. It looked like it was daylight,” Gear said.
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Their home is near the trailer where two women died from their injuries.
Short’s stepdad, Brian Scurlock, was at work at the time. He rushed to the hospital as soon as he heard what happened.
”The first thing I did when I got to the hospital was go over and hug her and just started crying. I told her I’m glad she made it and just that I was gonna be there for her,” Scurlock said.
Short said the doctors told her she’d have to stay in the hospital for at least another week.
If you’d like to help Short and her family who lost everything, you can donate to their GoFundMe here.
