When Before the tornado ripped apart his home in Washington, Ill., Dann had frantically tried to coax Maggie out of her kennel and into a safe room where his children were huddled. The frightened dog scratched and clawed him, escaping from his arms only seconds before the tornado made its impact.
“She was so scared that she bit my hand and scratched me,’’ he said. “I tried to pull her out of her kennel, but she was thrashing and clawing and got out of my arms. Then I saw the debris field was hitting the house and felt a hot wind coming in, so I ran into the bathroom, threw a large amplifier in front of the door, and then (the house) was gone.”
Dann was pinned down by bricks and other debris, but first responders and neighbors were able to pull him and his children to safety after they were trapped for about 15 minutes. His wife was not at home at the time because she was at work in Peoria, Ill.
“Every structure in our house was decimated,’’ he said. “I was in the basement bathroom with myself and my four children, and the structure fell on top of us. When (the tornado) passed by, there was water shooting from the faucet all over us, and all I could see was clear sky.
“I didn’t know if my kids were alive or not, but after a few seconds, I could hear all four of them individually screaming at me because they were terrified.”
a devastating tornado hit Jon Byler Dann's Illinois home on Sunday, ripping it apart, he and his four children were lucky to survive nearly unscathed.
But they were heartbroken by the feeling they'd lost their family pet, a dog named Maggie, who had gone missing in the chaos.
It was only when Dann and his friends surveyed the wreckage of his destroyed home on Monday that they heard a faint barking sound from underneath the debris. They quickly began removing the wreckage, including a large piece of masonry that required six men to slide it out of the way, and finally found Maggie alive, wrapped in a piece of carpeting.
“She was wrapped up in there with a whole bunch of insulation,’’ Dann told TODAY.com. “We got her out, and she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip. She was in shock, but her tail was wagging. She was happy to see me, and I was happy to see her. It was unreal.”