ARABI, La. — Jason Dickinson emerged from the rubble of his Arabi home Tuesday night, moments after it was destroyed by a tornado, and described in clear tones and chilling detail how he and his 5-year-old son survived by huddling in the only room of the house left standing.
But when he returned to survey the destruction in the bright of day Wednesday, the emotions overcame him.
“I could have lost him,” he said, thinking of his son Canaan and choking out the words. “I’ve been afraid ever since he was born for him. But the Lord was really watching out for us.”
Dickinson said his upbringing in Tennessee, in a tornado-prone area, prepared him for this moment. As the tornado jumped the Mississippi River and bore down on his Arabi neighborhood, he was on the phone with his ex-wife and Canaan’s mother, Ricci DeJean. Dickinson heard the air outside go silent and knew it was time to take cover.
He thought of going to the bathtub, but headed instead for a water closet, a completely walled-in room closer to the center of the house and situated along a load-bearing wall.
“I argued with myself if you can believe that. Or God, I think, was what it was,” he said. “Because I wanted to go in there (to the bathtub) and it was like, ‘No, you don't need to go in there. It's not the right one.’”
He said he was lifted off the ground by the suction as the roof blew clean off, but he spread out his arms over Canaan and pushed him down, so he wouldn’t be pulled into the vortex.
After he and Canaan emerged from the rubble, Dickinson saw a massive piece of metal had hurtled in from the street and pierced the wall of the bathtub, right where his head would have been if they had taken shelter there.
It was just as scary for DeJean to be on the other end of the phone line as all this was happening.
“It was one of the scariest moments of my life and more so theirs, just trying to get to them as quick as I could make sure that they were safe,” she said. “I do fake or practice fire or tornado drills with the kids all the time at home, and we get into the safest room in our home, in the tub and stuff. And so, I'm just glad that he really recognized on the way there that that wasn't the best spot for them. And I'm just really thankful.”
DeJean and her family came to help her ex try to clean up and look for clothes and other belongings buried under collapsed walls, crushed furniture and toppled appliances.
Next door sat an almost empty slab, where the house had been tossed into the neighboring lot. But across Patricia Street, some houses suffered only minor damage.
Directly across from the empty slab, Mynor Barrientos’ windows shattered and shingles blew off the roof, but otherwise, his home was left intact.
“The truth is it’s a real shame, total sadness,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “Because over there lives a friend of ours who was left without a home.”
A block away, the tornado did significant damage to Autumn Gregson and Renee Reynolds’ home. As they hauled out debris and relived the fear of hiding in their bathroom with their pets as the tornado passed, Gregson couldn’t believe how lucky they are to have a house that’s still standing.
“How did it level one and inhale the other?” she said. “We have people's roofs on other people's houses right now, and it's just crazy.”