Arkansas nursing home workers use bodies to shield residents from debris

Nursing home staff Barabar Richards made a shocking discovery Friday night when she looked outside her window and saw a storm heading straight towards her. She immediately ran to warn the other residents.

By this time all the nurses had already gathered the elderly residents in a hallway near the nurse's station and barricade the glass doors with mattresses. This nursing home in Monette, Arkansas was hit by a series of storms that have caused widespread damage in six states in America including, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The nursing home housed a total of 67 residents and it killed an 80-year-old man. However, it is believed that the fatalities could have been much worse if not for the efforts of Richards and other staff members. 

Richards and her fellow nurses grabbled onto the residents in wheelchairs and shielded them from the debris using their own bodies. As the storm increased in capacity it ripped pillows out of the head of the residents and one resident hot hit on the head by debris, this left them frightened and sobbing. At this time Richards asked them to sing and pray. They continued to sing songs, whichever ones they could remember, as the storm rampaged through the nursing home blowing its roof, walls, and sprinkler system soaking frail 80, 90, 100-year-old residents with water. Once the storm passed Richards called for help. 

Firefighter Shawn Nance and his chief arrived at the scene, Nance's grandmother and his wife's grandmother were inside the nursing home at the time. Stormtroopers Jordan Hall and Scott Peake who arrived minutes earlier recount instances of finding elderly residents under debris and confined to their beds by cinder blocks. 

Source: The Washington Post