COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Regina Weber is good with her phone. That's according to her son, Jon, who credits the survival of his parents to emergency alerts they received moments before an EF-4 tornado smashed into their home.
Weber was in their Echo Valley Home early Tuesday morning when she saw an alert she's never seen before. It notified her a tornado was imminent and that she should seek shelter.
She showed her husband, Pete Weber, but by the time either of them could act, the windows of their home burst inward.
The pair rushed towards a safer room next to the garage.
"I just grabbed her and we just hit the floor," said Pete Weber. "I heard glass breaking, timbers breaking up. Next thing I know we were down under the roof and I had about 8 to 10 inches room. She had just a little more that she could sit up a bit."
They were buried under the roof and walls of their home. An exercise bike somehow stopped the walls from crushing Regina. She had enough room to crouch under the rubble. Pete was laying flat on the ground with just a couple of inches clear above his body.
It was there that Regina used her phone to dial 911. All she was able to say was her address and the phone went dead. But it was enough.
Neighbors and first responders had the couple out in 20 minutes. They were lucky when so many weren't.
"How did we ever get out? Why did we get out? There must be a purpose for it. I wish I knew what it was," said Regina one week after the storm.
Since that night, life has been difficult. But they got to revisit their home. A lot of the rubble had been pushed to the side. A picture was snapped of them looking over where they nearly died.
"God blessed us. He took care of us. We have to give them all the credit," said Regina.
The couple will soon move into a condominium. Right now they're staying in a hotel.
The Webers are not sure what's next but their son hopes they can recover from this trauma. Especially since they still have each other.
