Brewer Bend Couple 'Lucky To Be Alive' After Tornado Destroys RV

By Jeffrey Smith, The News On 6  

BREWER BEND, OK -- One of the harder hit areas from Monday night's storms in eastern Oklahoma was Brewer Bend in Muskogee County.

A twister there destroyed half a dozen trailers, and sent several people to the hospital.

News On 6 reporter Jeffrey Smith spoke to a couple who was inside their RV when the tornado hit. They say they're lucky to be alive.

Clean-up crews are picking up the limbs and the branches, and the Ballard family is picking up the pieces.

"It just hit all at once, It just, blew it over. Just like that," Pal Ballard, tornado survivor, said.

Pal Ballard, 82, was relaxing inside his camper when the tornado hit.

"We were in it, pheew, there she went," Ballard said.

The twister flipped over his home, pinning Pal and his wife under a pile of debris.

"Everything in there, it was all on top of us," he said.

They were trapped for half an hour before firefighters pulled them out.

"First thoughts, we possibly could had some deaths here,"  Chief Speck Plunkett, Keefeton Fire, said. "I mean, because of the fact of all the trees that are down, being a trailer park, yeah."

But no deaths, thankfully, despite the extensive damage throughout the campsite. Pal's wife of 62 years was badly bruised and was taken to the hospital. She returned home as soon as she could.

Pal's using all his energy to salvage everything he can.   He's thankful to be alive, but even more thankful he spent the night with his wife.

"Man, I'm 82-years-old now, I can't be afraid to die," he said.

Ballard and his wife had actually been the caretakers of this camp site for the last 19 years, but the next couple nights, at least, they're going to have to spend them with their children.