4-month-old survives after being sucked up by tornado that destroyed Clarksville family’s home

Published: Dec. 12, 2023 at 1:49 PM CST | Updated: Dec. 12, 2023 at 6:15 PM CST

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Clarksville couple is searching for a new home with their two babies following the catastrophic tornado outbreak on Saturday.

A tornado demolished the family’s mobile home while they were inside. 22-year-old Sydney Moore said her 4-month-old was sucked up inside of it and survived.

Debris is all that is left of Moore’s trailer — scattered reminders of what she and the father of her kids lived through. Moore said she was in the back bedroom with her 1-year-old son when she heard the wind howling.

“Something in me just told me to run and jump on top of my son,” Moore said. “Literally the moment I jumped on him, the walls collapsed.”

In that same moment, in the living room, the kids’ father said he saw the tornado funnel down on top of them.

“The roof came off first, the tip of the tornado came down and picked up the bassinet with my baby, Lord, in it,” Moore said. “He was the first thing to go up.”

Her boyfriend hurled himself to grab their 4-month-old baby who was asleep in the bassinet, but he got spun up and thrown out along with the baby.

“He was just holding on to the bassinet the whole time, and they went into circles, he said, and then they got thrown,” Moore said.

Moore and the one-year-old baby were crushed under the trailer. She said somehow she was able to push them free and get out.

She said they were frantically searching for 10 minutes when they found their baby alive, lying in a fallen tree in the pouring rain. All of them survived the tornado with cuts and bruises.

“I thought he was dead,” Moore said. “I was pretty sure he was dead and we weren’t going to find him. But he’s here, and that’s by the grace of God.”

Moore and her boyfriend lost everything in the devastation. She said the community has rallied around them, specifically providing diapers and formula. Now all that’s left to find is a home for her family.

“I will die for my kids. That’s not even a question. And my boyfriend would do the same thing,” she said.

Outstanding, thank you for the uplift!

Wow….lucky lucky lucky…..I hope their next home includes a storm shelter on the property living in tornado country. Glad they will be physically ok

Wow! Great to hear that the baby survived. True miracle.

A miracle indeed. Glad for those folks!

Went down to Clarksville today. I hadn’t heard anything about a tornado. We were driving south on 41A and everything was normal. And then right in the middle of town was the twisters path.

It was impressive.

Wow. That certainly is a miracle.

I've lived in the same neighborhood all my nearly 70 years. The most powerful tornado in that time, hit a few years ago and a few miles away from my house. I saw debris from it in the winter barren woods yesterday. Seeing that debris reminded me of the path of destruction I witnessed on roads I bicycled many times.

Tornados are close to hells fury. I'm glad that baby survived.

The Legend Of Tree Baby! What a cool story.

That’s a pure God’s blessing and a Festivus MIRACLE right there!! Feel-good story…