DECATUR, Arkansas — People in Decatur are still picking up the pieces after two tornadoes hit the city on Sunday, May 26, and destroyed several homes.
One survivor was housesitting for friends when he got word that tornado warnings were being issued for Decatur.
Meekal Dalati said when he stepped outside, he made the quick decision to grab the dogs and leave, but when he returned, there was nothing left of the home.
"Once that warm period came in and the winds died down, I jumped in the car, backed up to the door, started gathering my things and gathering the dogs," he said. "Had to chase the cat around the living room."
Dalati drove up the road with smaller trees nearby and prepared for the worst.
"I could've died," he said. "All those dogs could've died too. I wouldn't expect to see just rocks, like foundation. I was expecting to see maybe a tree or two on the house or branches, but that was very mortifying."
Dalati says that he's unsure how, but he and the animals in his care escaped without a scratch.
"As the tornado hit me, it was like sitting in a wind tunnel," he said. "It just looked like white smoke all around me in a sense, just all the water and wind going so fast. Thankfully, I was looking out the front windshield because when it busted, it hit the side of me. But I got no scratches, somehow."
As Dalati made it to the top of the hill and got cell service, he came upon two people he says were critically injured. Dalati, the animals he was watching, and the two injured people piled into his car and waited for help to arrive.
"I was able to call police then and tell them my situation with two really critically wounded people in my car," he said.
"Two EMTs started walking up to us and I flagged them down and told them, I got two really badly injured people in my car and then they started working on them."
Those two injured neighbors have been released from the hospital.
His friends that he was housesitting for are working through the clean-up. Dalati says they are still processing the damage left behind from Sunday morning.
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