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Morning News

A Survivor's Story: Camilla, Georgia, Resident Revisits Wreckage of Devastated Home

Aired February 17, 2000 - 10:10 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Many residents in South Georgia are trying to rebuild their shattered lives after deadly tornadoes blew through the region, this week. Damage is estimated at $25 million. The small town of Camilla was especially hard hit.

CNN's Brian Cabell visited the town and has one survivor's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brenda Gonzalez (ph) can't bare to watch. For the first time since the tornado hit, she's back home, or what remains of her home.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: My friends who lived by me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, your friends used to live here.

CABELL: That's her four-year-old son, Dylan (ph). Their whole neighborhood of trailers was transformed into rubble.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to see if this is mine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of your stuff over here. It's all on the other side of the road, Brenda. Your trailer's on the other side of the road.

It's OK. Don't worry about it. We'll get our stuff. We'll get you more stuff. We'll get you more good stuff.

CABELL: The night of the tornado, Brenda says, she just lay on top of her three sons, held them tightly and then tumbled with them until the horrifying winds and sounds died down. The whole family survived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was mine. The exercise bicycle is the only thing left standing up.

CABELL: It's true. Almost everything else was hurled across the road, 50 yards away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my trailer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's your trailer. There's your waterbed. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's my babies at?

CABELL: They're all right, her family assures her, you protected them, you saved them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do what you have to do. You don't think about you until it's all over and you get your babies out, and that's all that matters, is your babies. That's it.

CABELL: There's one of them: eight-year-old Tony (ph) with a broken ankle back at grandma's house, and three-year-old David with a broken elbow, and of course little Dylan. She says he's the most shaken up of the three, but maybe, just maybe, brighter times lie ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I promised them after we get our income tax we'd go to Disney World, so that's what we're going to do. We're going to go to Disney World.

CABELL: Brian Cabell, CNN, Camilla, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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