Residents and friends sift through debris after a tornado struck the area, Monday, April 28, 2014, in Vilonia, Ark. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) (The Associated Press)
FERNDALE, Ark. – A fierce tornado that swept through Arkansas killed more than a dozen people, including two sisters and their father, part of a large family that had gathered for a "normal" evening before the storm drove them to seek shelter under a staircase.
"You could just see the wind was just crazy," Emily Tittle, 17, said Monday as she searched for keepsakes to save in the ruins of her family's rural home in the rolling hills west of Little Rock. In a pile, she and others helped her gather family photos in a plastic, pink tray.
Tittle said she, her eight siblings and her parents scurried for safety under the stairs in the two-story house, but only half of them made it before the walls were obliterated by the twister that left just the foundation behind. Her father, Rob Tittle, and two sisters, Tori, 20, and Rebekah, 14, were killed. All six of her other siblings were taken to hospitals, three of whom have since been discharged.
She said she plans to meet up with her mother who is still alive later in the day, but said she hadn't heard from her since the night before.
One of her neighbors, Jon Zieske, found a tooth when he was collecting photos. Shelly Linn, for years a mail carrier in the area, was pitching in, hoping to help. Turning to Tittle amid Monday's scavenge, Linn sought guidance.
"Baby girl, what do you want me to do?" Linn asked the teenager, whose gray sweatpants, short-sleeved Snoopy T-shirt and sneakers were among her now-few possessions.
Pausing, Tittle surveyed the devastation.
"I don't know if we can find anything," she said.
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Daniel Wassom was huddled in a hallway of a Vilonia home during the storm with his wife, Suzanne, and daughters Lorelei, 5, and Sydney, 7, neighbors and a relative said. Suzanne Wassom even posted on Facebook about it. At the height of the tornado, a large piece of lumber crashed toward the family. Dan Wassom, 31, who served in the Air Force, shielded Lorelei, taking the brunt of the blow to his neck, said Carol Arnett, Dan Wassom's grandmother.
It was a fatal blow. Lorelei suffered a shoulder injury and was hospitalized. Suzanne Wassom was hit by something in the head, but Arnett had no information about her condition.
"Dan always put his family first," Arnett said, wiping away tears. "They're just good people. They love God and their children."
The home was leveled. Arnett had driven to Vilonia on Monday from her home in Wagner, Okla., to help find mementoes and in the debris field that used to be the family home. Neighbors Nicholas and Brittany White helped, finding Suzanne Wassom's pocket purse and other treasured items.
"He'd do anything for anybody," Nicholas White said of Dan Wassom.
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Associated Press writer Jim Salter in Vilonia contributed to this report.
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