Single mother left homeless after two-bedroom house levelled by tornado while she hid in bathtub with two children
A single mother-of-two was left homeless after her two-bedroom house was completely levelled by a tornado - while she hid in the bathtub with two children. Dayton Gary, 24, was working from home while looking after her youngest son who is one and her niece when the tornado hit. Dayton lives in New Iberia, Louisiana, USA, where tornado warnings are frequent, but this time, as the sirens rang out, she thought something was different. "I didn't touch anything, I didn't grab anything, I grabbed my kid Rome and I ran to the bathroom and threw him in the bathtub," she explained. "Then I had to get my niece who was playing right by the window, I grabbed her by her little arm and I threw her in the tub as well." Dayton tried to slam the door shut but because the windows had been damaged the wind had entered the building proving it impossible. She then jumped into the bathtub and laid on top of the kids to keep them safe from harm. "They were screaming, I was screaming, I was crying and it sounded like everything outside was falling. "It was the loudest most destructive sound you could think of. "Then everything got really quiet, I didn't know whether to get up or not." She eventually got up and opened her bathroom door and saw everything was destroyed. "I was looking at the sky from my bathroom door," she said. "The only room that wasn't destroyed was the bathroom we were in." The roof was inside the house and debris was everywhere with insulation strewn across the property as well as powerlines in and amongst the wreckage. So much debris was around them in the bathroom, Dayton and the kids were unable to get out until a neighbour came to their aid. Eventually, the emergency services arrived after they had sought refuge in a neighbour's home. Dayton, a call centre agent, is now staying wherever she can and spent one night in a hotel. She has contacted the Red Cross in regards to temporary accommodation but is yet to hear back. After posting her videos to TikTok, many have sent her donations to help her get through this period. She said with tears in her eyes: "We're not sure where we're going to go from here or what the next step is at all. "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to figure it out myself or wait for assistance. "We literally lost everything, clothes, furniture, my kids lost all of their toys, memories, pictures hanging on the walls, it's just horrible." Thankfully, Dayton's oldest son Draeco, 2, was with his father at the time of the tornado and was spared the harrowing experience. Friends and family have banded together to organise a fundraiser on GoFundMe, with a target to raise £3,666 ($4,500). Dayton said in a Facebook post: "To everyone who has reached out to help, sent kind words or even donated to me & my boys from the very bottom of my heart I am SO appreciative! "Never in my life would i have thought this would be something i would experience. "I have barely slept or ate or really done anything besides stress the past 2 days. we are so homesick, humbled & so lost right now." A huge storm system surged across Louisiana on Tuesday and Wednesday night (Dec 14) bringing widespread power outages and destroying home and leaving communities devastated. At least three people have lost their lives as a result of the weather, including a mother and son.