Saving what matters most: Dad finds 4-year-old safe in bed amid tornado rubble
SPENCER — After the howling winds finally calmed, the hail subsided and the tornado dispersed into the darkness, all Calvin Bowman had left was what he salvaged from the rubble and carried out of his house: His 4-year-old daughter Virginia, wrapped up in a blanket clutched to his chest.
Calvin and his mother were rushing toward his daughter's bedroom so they could seek shelter in the basement when a tornado tore through the house, debris falling and knocking them to the living room floor.
Virginia was beyond reach.
'What happened to our house?'
"It's a blur then of what happened," Calvin recalled. "The power goes out, rain is pouring down and there's hail and it's pitch black and I couldn't tell which way to go when I finally was able to stand up."
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He climbed over broken furniture and chunks of walls to get to Virginia's room, where he had put her safely to bed hours earlier. He called out her name, over and over, afraid she was hurt, maybe unconscious, maybe worse.
But Virginia slept through the storm, and awoke to Calvin's frantic cries. She reached her skinny arms through the rubble toward her 23-year-old dad. He lifted her up and grabbed a blanket.
"I tried to wrap her up and hold her head down so she couldn't see what was going on around us," Calvin said.
Virginia was perplexed. She was crying. "What happened to our house?"
Deadly tornado's path
The house on Concord Road is in Owen County, about a mile due east of the campground at McCormick's Creek State Park, where two people died. The March 31 storm came through just after 11 p.m.
The National Weather Service said the tornado, with winds of 138-mph, originated in the park, then headed east, where it took out the Bowman's house and scattered parked cars and trucks as if they were tiny die-cast toys. Trees twisted, splintered and slammed to the ground.
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From there, the tornado churned northeast another mile or so before crossing the county line and causing devastation along West Wolf Mountain Road in Monroe County, where about a dozen homes were destroyed.
A sudden, shocking scene
Everything seems fine driving along pothole-riddled Concord Road, bushes and trees greening, until you get to the curve at the Litten family cemetery. Going south from there, the tornado damage comes into view.
The wrath of Mother Nature hit hard.
On the right sits the remains of the Bowmans' house, where Calvin's grandparents moved in 1985. Three generations were living there before the tornado forced them out: Carrie Bowman, her son, Calvin, and granddaughter Virginia.
On the property and across the road are several totaled cars and trucks that had been parked near the house before the wind whisked them away. They landed in the middle of Concord Road.
'Are you OK?'
When Kayla Bowman got word her mom's house had been struck by a tornado, she drove to the scene from Spencer. Fallen trees blocked Concord Road and she couldn't get through. She went to her aunt and uncle's nearby house.
Worry and panic ensued. They got a call from Calvin, who had located his cell phone in the debris, still plugged into a charger. "Are you OK? Where are you?" Kayla asked.
"We're here, standing in what's left of the living room," her mom said.
What's left
Four days later, blue sky and the sun overhead, the destruction was shocking. Rain-sodden remnants of the Bowmans' lives were scattered in the muddy yard and fields beyond.
What's left behind from a home in a tornado's path gives a glimpse into who once lived there.
A bottle of blue acrylic craft paint, broken mirror shards, a black AMF Strikeline bowling ball. A crockpot lid, a maple wood chair spindle, a child's riding toy. One brown leather Caterpillar work boot, size 9. A wine glass missing its stem.
Someone found Calvin's green-stone Owen Valley High School class ring in the cornfield across the road. He's wearing it.
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Leaving the house that night, his cell phone flashlight illuminated a Micky Mouse doll Calvin's cousin had crocheted for Virginia. He picked it up. "I was happy to see it," he said.
The woman died, and the toy was special. The next day, amid the items strewn around the property, someone found the Minnie Mouse that goes with it.
A worker erecting utility poles handed Calvin a postage-sized photo of a child he'd found in the mud. It was his niece's kindergarten picture, which has been on the Bowmans' refrigerator for a decade.
Lucky?
The Bowmans are staying with family members for now, awaiting word about insurance and deciding how to proceed from here.
Calvin was ready to return to work at the Sav-A-Lot grocery in Spencer, where's he's the meat manager. But on his way in Tuesday morning, he got rear-ended while stopped behind a school bus picking up a student.
He was driving a borrowed car since his car, Jeep SUV and two old pickups were destroyed in the storm, as was his mom's Toyota SUV. Their home and auto insurance doesn't cover the cost to repair or replace the vehicles.
Kayla Bowman doesn't see her brother as a victim of bad luck. He's blessed, she said, even lucky, despite losing almost everything. Three generations walked unharmed out of a disaster.
Calvin waited for Virginia Wednesday after her tumbling class at Cathleen's Gymnastics in downtown Spencer. This is what you do when hard times strike. Look forward, find a ride and take your kid to gymnastics.
Wearing a fuchsia leotard with ruffles, Virginia twirled out the front door, a plastic Easter egg filled with chocolates in each hand.
She jumped into her dad's arms and kissed his cheek, like always.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana tornado: 4-year-old found safe in bed after storm destroys home
