Chile quake survivor escapes tornado

LONDON, Ont. - The terrified campers clung to a tree in a ravine as the vortex, just metres above their heads, flung trailers off their moorings and ripped trees from their roots.

Then their sanctuary tree was also yanked from the ground, with Londoner Lorenzo Macchiavello and his son-in-law Shawn LaRocque pinned beneath it.

"I've been through three earthquakes in Chile and now I've been in a tornado," a bruised and still-shaken Macchiavello said Tuesday. Not even the quake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale could match Sunday's terror, he said.

"This was different -- this scene was horror."

The family had been staying at a private camping area overlooking the Maitland River. Most other campers had already left late Sunday afternoon when Lorenzo, Jr., spied a funnel cloud bearing down on them.

He shouted at everyone to find shelter.

"We had time only to jump in the ravine and grab my grandson," the senior Macchiavello said, his voice cracking as he recalled the moment. "We were all hugging the tree very strong."

His daughter Andrea, her husband Shawn and their two children, Selena and Ryan, grabbed each other and the tree with Lorenzo Sr. and Lorenzo Jr.

They heard the tornado from there, about three metres down the ravine, before they saw it. It was, Macchiavello said, like a train bearing down on them.

Then they saw the funnel, from its under-side. They saw the debris flying through the air, felt the rush of wind that pulled young Ryan's legs away from the tree and made them grab each other even more tightly.

"You could see all the trees going, going, going -- until ours went, too," Macchiavello said.

The tree fell on his right leg and on Larocque's torso.

Family members frantically pried open a storage shed to get a chainsaw and cut the men loose.

Macchiavello said he's had enough close calls to last a lifetime and he's grateful his whole family survived. "You need to thank the Lord to be alive. The material part is not important.

Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/08/23/18592736.html?cid=rssnews

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