Tornado forces family from RV into relatives' home despite social distancing efforts
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BATON ROUGE – The Westminster neighborhood near the Interstate 10/12 split was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods following Wednesday morning’s severe weather.
Late into the night, crews with Entergy were still out trying to get the power back on for folks in the area.
It was an early morning for residents in the neighborhood including the Lively Family from Little Rock, Ark.
The family says they’re here visiting loved ones and are using an RV to travel and stay in because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the Lively’s thought they were being as safe a possible, avoiding prolonged contact with their elderly family members, mother nature caught them off guard.
"We've been here on a trip visiting family. We came in our motor home so that way we could stay distant from our grandparents and keep them safe. So we had the kids in the motor home and in the middle of the night this storm starts picking up,” Natalie Lively said.
A possible tornado ripped through the Westminster neighborhood Wednesday morning, uprooting trees with some crashing down on homes, garages and vehicles. All of this happening while Natalie, her husband, and 7 children, including her nieces and nephews, were sound asleep inside their less than 30-foot camper.
"We got a little nervous because a motor home is not where you want to be. So I started waking them up and throwing them out the door in the rain and I said 'run as fast as you can inside the house.' So luckily we were all okay. And when we got in the house they were sopping wet and a little shaken up,” she said.
Authorities say no one in the area was hurt because of the severe weather. The damage done was mostly limited to houses along two streets in the neighborhood.
Skies cleared in the afternoon allowing power crews and residents to get to work. One crew used a large crane to remove massive tree limbs from the backyard of one home.
As the lively family heads back home to little rock ark. With a new story to tell, they're just glad that everyone is okay.
"We've been very thankful to have the motor home because it has been able to keep us self contained while we're visiting. That's been wonderful but this is definitely one of those examples where you need a more stable place to go,” Lively said.
Power to the entire neighborhood was eventually restored by 10:00 p.m. Wednesday night.