| 2 days 17 hours 20 min ago Timex baby: 16 years later
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(NECN/ABC) - Just about anyone who lives in the Meridian, Mississippi area long enough eventually hears the story of the Timex miracle baby. Tanner Moody, three-months-old at the time, lived through extraordinary conditions and is old enough now to talk about the tornado of 1992.
He was swept away by a killer tornado, then rescued by his parents in the dark. The child was found hanging 10-feet high from a pine tree.
"I really feel like an ordinary person. I just feel like I got a lucky break."
Instead, many consider Tanner a miracle. The storm flipped the family's trailer several times. The Moodys were thrown from their home in the dark and their son was missing for around 20 minutes.
"All of a sudden I heard him crying he was hanging upside down, crying from a tree. I believe in my heart that the lord looked over him and has some sort of purpose in life for him."
The people have long cleaned up from the storm, but when it came through 16 years ago, it turned much of Lauderdale County upside down. It killed three people, damaged or destroyed 216 homes and caused about $4.5 million in private damage. But, what people remember is the miracle that took place.
Timex put Tanner in one of its ads, under the headline "Takes a Lickin' Keeps on Tickin'..."
Through the ordeal, Tanner suffered a fractured rib, a hand injury and some visible scratches. Scars on his hand are his only reminder of that night.
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