Woman, Son Survive Tornado in Bathtub

(NECN: Brian Burnell, Wethersfield, Conn.) - A Connecticut man is grateful after his daughter and grandson survived after being buried by rubble in their Joplin, Missouri home.

The pictures coming out of Joplin are staggering.  Imagine being buried underneath the rubble.  Heather Marsh can tell you what its like. She was caught in the tornado that hit Joplin on Sunday.  

As it approached, her mom called her and told her to grab her 6-year-old son Hayden and get in the bathtub.  She did and it saved their lives as the house came down around them.  13-hundred miles away Steve Marsh, Heather's father, got a call from his other daughter Stephanie who told him Heather was trapped.

Steve Marsh, Wethersfield, CT:  "As I'm getting the story I get a text from my daughter who's trapped.  It says, 'I love you.  I'm OK.'  She's in the bathtub covered."  

Covered with so much debris it took her 45 minutes to reach her cell phone which was in her back pocket.

Monica Marsh, Wethersfield, CT: "She had debris laying on top of her so she didn't know what to do.  She said the debris was too heavy for her to move."

Heather kept reassuring Hayden they were going to be okay as she sent text messages to everyone she knew including neighbors in Joplin.  They rushed over to what was left of her house, saw her cell phone blinking through the debris and dug her and Hayden out. They are lucky to be alive despite losing everything.  As for her dad back in Connecticut...

Steve Marsh, Wethersfield, CT: "I'm grateful that my daughter and my grandson are alive but there's a lot of parents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles that weren't as lucky as my family and my prayers go out to them."

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