College student recounts surviving tornado in St. Louis after being thrown from car
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Mya Grimes tells First Alert 4, May 16th will forever be etched in her memory.
Friday, the senior at Jackson State University was driving down Pershing to get home.
She says it felt like a normal day, until it wasn’t.
Grimes tells First Alert 4, “It was something straight out of a movie a true nightmare.”
She goes on to say, “The sky was dark, but I was just trying to make it home. My dad called me and he was like whatever you do like, stop what you’re doing. You’re that close. Like, just get home.”
The St. Louis native didn’t make it in time.
She says trees fell around her and the rain became intense.
Grimes called her mother, Tina Grimes out of fear.
Her mother says, “When I answered the phone, I just wasn’t prepared for what I heard on the other end. And she said Ma Ma, Ma, Ma and just that alone...I just start saying what’s going on? She said it’s taking me. It’s taking me. It’s taking me.”
The phone disconnected.
Grimes found her self in the line of Friday’s EF-3 tornado.
“My car just started spinning in circles and circles and circles and I was holding onto my windshield or my my steering wheel for like dear life and I just was praying and just screaming. Jesus, Jesus,” says Grimes.
According to Grimes, her windshield busted.
She says she was thrown from the car, tumbling down 40 yards at the corner of Union and Washington.
Grimes says, “I was crawling down the road. I really was just like, I just have to make it to the sidewalk.”
She pointed out the pole she held on to as she rode out the rest of the storm.
Mya Grimes was able to flag down an ambulance.
She was taken to the hospital where she walked away with only cuts and burns.
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