Student's lifesaving act during tornado recognized

By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Linda Faye Myers thought she was going to die when a tornado crashed down on her mobile home south of Marble Hill two weeks ago, ripping it apart and throwing her into a lake. Badly injured, she nearly drowned.

Next-door neighbor Robert Owens, 18, came to her rescue just moments after the raging storm with winds of up to 200 mph demolished his family's home around 12:40 a.m. on April 28.

Owens heard Richard Myers, Linda's husband, yell for help. The tornado had dumped Richard Myers in the lake, breaking his left leg. Owens jumped in and pulled him to shore. "I was up to my chest in water. It was pretty cold," he said.

Owens said he then saw Linda Myers in the water and pulled her to a shallow place. But he couldn't get her completely out of the water by himself.

Owens sought the help of his 15-year-old brother, Kerry. The two boys dragged her onto a door that had been ripped off its hinges in the storm, and with the aid of another neighbor they managed to drag her onto the shore.

Myers said Owens and Tami Kiefer, an Air Evac paramedic who arrived later, saved her life.

Myers and her husband were airlifted separately to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Kiefer stayed with the woman until she was flown out on an Arch Medical Services helicopter.

"Robert and Tami were my heroes. They were my angels that night," said Linda Myers, whose left foot was so badly damaged that it had to be amputated. She also suffered a broken left arm.

"I had to have four surgeries," Myers said from her hospital bed last week. Myers said she expects to be in the hospital for another month or two. Her husband was released from St. Francis but was later readmitted with a leg infection, she said. By Friday, he had been released from the hospital once again.

Myers said she's relieved just to be alive. She remembers the terror of the tornado.

Rolling mobile home

She awoke and jumped out of bed just before the tornado slammed into her mobile home. The home rolled over a couple of times even as it was being ripped apart.

"The bed came crashing down on me. I believe that was when my ankle got caught," she said.

Myers said her husband was thrown free of the damaged home and landed in the lake. But Myers remained pinned under the bed, trapped in what was left of the trailer as the tornado tossed the home into the lake.

She remembers sinking with the frame of the mobile home to the bottom of the lake, some 30 feet down. "When it hit the bottom of the lake, it just exploded. It went flying everywhere."

She managed to get to the surface, but found it hard to breathe.

"My left arm and legs were messed up, my pelvic area was messed up. I couldn't scream," she recalled. "I was just numb."

Myers said she was so badly injured she couldn't get to the shore.

"If it had not been for Robert, I would have drowned," she said.

Kiefer said Myers was close to passing out, and was cold and wet.

"In a way it was a good thing," said Kiefer. "The coldness kept her from bleeding."

Hospital visit

Myers said Kiefer visited her at the hospital. "We cried and we hugged," Myers said.

Kiefer said she was just doing her job. Neither she nor Owens think of themselves as heroes.

"I am glad I helped her," said Owens, a pony-tailed student who remains a little uncomfortable with all the attention he has received.

"It was pretty scary," he said of the deadly storm which destroyed about 20 houses in the area and killed 12-year-old Billy Hoover. "It's still hard to believe."

Missouri Gov. Bob Holden recently sent a letter of praise to Owens for his rescue efforts.

Jerry Nachtigal, the governor's spokesman, called Owens "a hero and a role model."

John Hixson, Woodland High School principal, said Owens deserves the praise.

"I think it is excellent to have a student that displays that much character," he said. "The school is really proud of Robert."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123