SHOAL CREEK, Ala. — As fire chief of the Shoal Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Vernon White knows he may one day have to save someone’s life.
The life he saved Wednesday was his own.
While attempting to answer a call Wednesday, as an apparent tornado was bearing down on the community, White said the fire truck he was driving was “picked up by the tornado, flipped several times and dropped upside down in the Coosa River.”
While upside down in the river, White managed to unbuckle his seat belt, get out of the truck through a broken window and swim to safety.
“When I got to the end of Lock 1 Road, I saw the tornado coming,” White said. “I turned left and tried to outrun it. I got a quarter-of-a-mile down the road and the tornado hit me. It picked my truck up, turned it around and around.
“I don’t know how many times I rolled and rolled and rolled on the ground. I ended up in the river.”
White said the tornado picked the truck up he knows at least one time and they made a complete circle one time before being dropped in the river.
“White estimates the tornado took him and the vehicle 100 to 150 yards before it landed in the water.
“When the tornado first hit the truck, I grabbed hold of the steering wheel and laid down in the seat,” White said. “The force of the wind blew all of the windows out of the truck. I remember being upside down in the water. I had to hold my breath maybe 30 to 45 seconds as I unbuckled my seatbelt and went out the driver’s side window to get out of and swim to safety.”
The only injury White sustained was a black eye and he did say he was real sore after all the tumbling. “I am thankful to God I survived,” he said.
White’s wife, Linda Limbaugh, said when she saw the truck she fell to her knees. “I thanked God because I knew God was riding with him,” Limbaugh said. “That is the only way Vernon got out alive.”
Republished with permission of The St. Clair Times