Video: A Storm Story to Tell From Smithville Marina

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SMITHVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — One rode it out in his storm shelter after surviving a deadly twister four years ago. The other was in town almost by accident.

Now they’ve both got another story to tell and God to thank.

When what witnesses say was a tornado left Amory and headed north, people at the Smithville Marina had only a few minutes to prepare before the storm covered the five miles up the river.

When it was over, two sheds were destroyed, some trees were snapped and a 42-foot houseboat was flipped off a trailer.

But all the boats and their tenants were unharmed.

“I was sitting on the chair and my dog jumped in may lap, my wife got between my legs with her dog in her lap and we covered up with blankets. Then we felt the trailer move and I thought it was going to go over but it didn’t, it just went up in the air and came back down,” said Winn Webb, a Citrus County, Fla. resident who was camping at the marina with his wife.

“Oh yeah, it came right over my storm shelter so I knew what had happened. I experienced all this four years ago,” said Smithville Marina owner Scott Cox, who installed a tornado shelter at his home a quarter mile from the marina after the April 27, 2011 tornado that killed 16 people in Smithville. “I felt like with the angle of the storm that I’m really surprised we don’t have more damage.”

The Webbs are on a cross-country tour and were headed to taxes to visit the Waco and Alamo memorials when they decided to stop in the area to avoid severe weather that has been hitting Texas. They found Smithville almost by accident on an online travel site and decided to stay a week to avoid the Texas weather.