CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Latonya Stevens heard thunder and saw lightning in the distance, she knew the drill. Each time a storm drew near, her children would run to her room seeking comfort.
So Stevens turned on a hall light for the young kids as high winds began buffeting the house. Then she blacked out and awoke to find only one of her four kids in sight.
With the house about to shake apart, she assumed the worst: A twister had carried off the other three.
“I was screaming for them,” Stevens said Monday. “I was panicking.”
No one knows precisely what happened, but this much is clear. The three children were in their rooms when the twister approached. As the winds rose, most of the home’s second floor was swept away. After the tornado passed, the kids were found outside on the ground, one of them 100 feet away along a major highway.
All three emerged with only cuts and bruises — and a story to tell for the rest of their lives.
“It’s a miracle they survived,” said their grandfather Clarence Gray Jr. “God was looking out for them.”
Most of the family’s possessions were lost. But by Monday, the children were playing in their grandparents’ house as if nothing had happened. They picked up family photos scattered on a coffee table.
“This was our house,” Jamal said, pointing to a picture.
The children carried off — 3-year-old Amber, 4-year-old Ayanna and 7-year-old Jamal — said they don’t recall anything.
“They’re like me. They don’t remember what happened,” Stevens said. “We don’t know. Maybe it will come back to us eventually. I mean, I’ve sat down and tried to figure out what happened. I don’t know.”
When storms moved into the Charlotte area late Friday, the four children were upstairs in their bedrooms. Their grandmother Patricia Stevens was watching TV downstairs on a couch. Their father, Tyrone Stevens, was out with friends who were in town for a basketball tournament.
Latonya Stevens heard a storm approaching. As she went to turn on the hall light, the house began to shake, and the wind started to howl.
Then she lost consciousness.
Stevens awoke in the dark holding her other 3-year-old twin, Ashley, and shouting for her children. The roof was gone. She hurried downstairs in the dark, screaming “Where’s my babies?” and spotted her mother, who also was frantic.
“I didn’t know where the children were,” Patricia Stevens said. “The house was shaking, and then we heard the noise. And all of the sudden you heard the house go whap, whap, whap, whap. Just like that. Then the walls were gone. Then I said to myself, ‘Is this how you’re supposed to die? Are we going to die in here or what?’ “
Amber was found in the family yard under some debris. Ayanna landed in a neighbor’s yard. Jamal had been tossed more than 100 feet. The children were rushed to the hospital.
The next day when Tyrone Stevens returned home, he couldn’t believe what happened. “Just looking at it, it just shook me to my core,” he said. “I was devastated. Thank God everyone is OK.”
