By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
The storms that tore through North Texas produced not only destruction but some amazing stories of survival, including one babysitting grandmother who clutched her 18-month-old grandson as the wind tried to tear him away.
"It just felt like it was trying to just take him, you know just actually take him from me," Sherrie Enochs of Forney told WFAA-TV as she held her grandson Lane. "I clutched him as hard as I could."
"She held onto his feet -- just by his feet -- and the wind kept taking him, but she hung onto him," her daughter Lindsey Enochs added in an interview with WFAA-TV.
Sherrie Enochs was babysitting her grandson and two other children when "I looked through the back glass of my bedroom window and saw the tornado coming."
She grabbed the children and huddled with them in a bathtub.
The tornado destroyed the home, and tore through dozens of other ones in Forney.
Sherrie Enochs started screaming and a passerby helped her out of the debris.
Tim Sharp / Reuters
"One of the little boys was walking around there in the backyard," she added, "and how he got there I don't know."
Lane was untouched and the worst injury was a scratch to one of the boys.
'Sounded like a bomb' at nursing home
In Arlington, a twister tore through part of a nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy saw it coming through the back door.
She had just finished herding dozens of patients into the hallway, The Associated Press reported, when "it sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking."
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck says he saw "so many miracles" during his tour of his storm-damaged town.
The blast of wind lasted about 10 seconds, she said, adding that a co-worker was nearly "sucked out" while trying to get a patient out of the room.
Joy Johnston was visiting her 79-year-old sister at the time. "The windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," NBCDFW.com quoted her as saying. "It was terribly loud."
Children herded to safety at school
In Lancaster, the pastor of Cedar Valley Christian Academy herded more than 30 daycare children -- including some newborns -- into a windowless room when he saw debris swirling, NBCDFW.com said.
At the church's school, about 60 more children also took shelter in a windowless room.
An entire wall of the school was destroyed.
Pastor Glenn Young said he didn't know when the school might reopen. "I'm a little concerned," he added. "This is our livelihood."
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