Vinita family survives a thunderstorm scare

A Vinita family road out a violent storm huddled inside their mobile home earlier this week. <br><br>As News on Six reporter Rick Wells explains, the home was destroyed, but amazingly, the family survived.

Thursday, August 8th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A Vinita family road out a violent storm huddled inside their mobile home earlier this week.

As News on Six reporter Rick Wells explains, the home was destroyed, but amazingly, the family survived.

Two-month-old Garrett Moss is lucky to be alive after a freak thunderstorm visited his house north of Vinita Tuesday evening. The storm had flattened the house, and dad, Terry Moss, had to dig through the mess to find his son. "I started digging, ya know. I kept jerking stuff out, seemed like it took for ever, but finally I seen him he was buried under insulation and stuff I could see his mouth moving, could hear him crying. He was in an entertainment cabinet that fell over, he'd like slipped inside it. So it was protecting him from the walls and stuff falling on him."

Here's what the National Weather Service says probably caused all the damage to the Moss' mobile home. As a big thunderstorm began to collapse and all the air got let out of it, all that air hit the ground and had to go somewhere when it hit the top of this little hill, it flipped over their mobile home.

Garrettâ€™s mom, Heather Moss, "I saw us in the air, I was holding on to my daughter's doorway. I opened my eyes and I saw air then I saw the ground." She said it was like her house was bouncing on a trampoline. Mom and Dad and 3-year-old daughter Breanne had some scratches and bruises.

Garrett ended up at St Francis Hospital for observation of what turned out to be minor injuries. "Instead of you know laying on glass or wood or whatever all four of us was surrounded by insulation." Like a protecting blanket. I said they were lucky to be alive, good fortune doesn't seem to explain it.

The Moss family will live with another family while they decide what to do next, but Heather Moss says she has lived in her first and last mobile home.