Finding Friendship During Devastation

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Two Columbus women formed a new bond Saturday night, after the EF-3 twister ripped through Columbus.

“In the midst of the storm, like God sent me, like God sent me to her,” says Monica Sykes.

Sykes is talking about Elett Lowury.

Tuesday, they returned to the place where fate brought them together.

“We were just riding by and I saw her holding a baby and I made her get in the car because I couldn’t leave her with the baby outside. It was raining and I didn’t know her from day one, I just couldn’t leave her.”

Lowury and her two week old son had just gone through the most harrowing thing a new mom and child could face.

“I was holding my baby and then all of a sudden, everything got quiet. The lights started flickering and then the tornado just hit really hard and we were in there hollering and then after we thought it was over, it was like the door was jammed, we were trapped inside the basement and then, we had to bust out the door. Didn’t anybody know we were in there and it was starting to flood in there.”

That’s when Lowury was met with a difficult decision; stay in the rain with other family members, or seek safety for her son.

“We’re just down here by ourselves and I didn’t want to leave them hanging, but she encouraged me to get in the car with her and she took me to her house and got me dry clothes and got the baby dry clothes and made sure we were warm and safe and I thank her, her and her mother, they took me in.”

For her part, Sykes says no was not an option for an answer.

“You need to come on. You’ve got a baby. You need to get in this car.”

Now 72 hours later, a sense of stability has taken over.

“I’m just lost for words. I don’t know, like it was devastating. It was scary. I’m still shaken up about it, but I thank God that we did make it out.”

Lowury’s mother is in the hospital.

On top of staying with Sykes, she’s bounced from sleeping at the hospital with her mom, to a hotel.

The mother says she’s trying to figure out what’s next.