LEE COUNTY, Alabama – More than two days after the deadly tornado outbreak in Alabama, there was little hope of finding people or pets alive in the rubble.
The Lee County Coroner’s Office confirmed the names of all 23 victims on Tuesday, and they range in age from 6 years old to 89. At least a half-dozen people are still unaccounted for.
The Lashley family home was thrown from its foundation and flipped over. The family members got out just in time, but Bugsy the cat was inside.
“We searched the whole house by hand the first day and we didn’t find her,” Hunter Lashley said. “So we were thinking the worst, that she could be dead.”
But Hunter and his wife, Emily, kept hearing what sounded like faint meows. So they kept looking, but found nothing.
Then on Tuesday night, they got an unexpected surprise.
“Mama!” Emily Hunter cried out in the distance. “We got her!”
Hunter Lashley and a few friends found Bugsy underneath the rubble. Emily immediately took the 4-year-old cat to the hospital.
“It’s a miracle we weren’t inside here when it hit," Hunter Lashley said, “and that we found all the animals."
Forecasters now say the EF4 tornado, nearly a mile wide, traveled some 70 miles through Lee County.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the hardest-hit areas in Alabama on Friday.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family with expenses.