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" &amp;quot;My husband almost didn&amp;#039;t make it&amp;quot;  Amy and Jake Burnett Married 7 years On May 24, Amy Burnett was at the grocery store when she got a call from her husband, Jake, that a serious tornado was heading toward their town of Piedmont, near Oklahoma City. She raced to pick up their daughter, Rylie, 4, and son, Beau, 2, from day care. As soon as they got home, she and the kids took food and a jug of water down to the tornado shelter the family had installed in their garage when they built the house three years ago.  &amp;quot;I called my husband, and he was speeding home from work, but I was petrified he wouldn&amp;#039;t get there in time,&amp;quot; says Amy, 31. When he finally showed up, frantic and soaking wet from the storm-driven rain, the family bolted themselves into the safe room and waited for the twister to hit. &amp;quot;If he had arrived 10 minutes later, he wouldn&amp;#039;t have made it,&amp;quot; says Amy, crying. It sounded like the world was ending outside, and 30 minutes later, when Jake opened the door, the world they had known was gone.  Rylie shouted in disbelief, &amp;quot;Our house blew away!&amp;quot; In fact, the tornado had demolished the Burnetts&amp;#039; entire block. Family members took them in, and helped them begin to sort through the rubble the next day. &amp;quot;My aunt somehow found my husband&amp;#039;s wedding band, which had been on our bedroom dresser,&amp;quot; says Amy. &amp;quot;We lost nearly everything else we owned, but not what counted most \u2014 our family. Beau is thankfully too young to understand what&amp;#039;s happened, but when Rylie asks why she can&amp;#039;t go home, and where her toys are, I just break down. I can&amp;#039;t bear to tell her that nothing will ever be the same. Jake has been so strong for all of us. I can&amp;#039;t imagine having to go through this without him.&amp;quot; The Burnetts are looking for an apartment to rent until they can rebuild their home. Despite it all, &amp;quot;we know how blessed we are. Jake and I have always had a solid marriage, but after making it through this, I feel like we can get through anything, no matter what,&amp;quot; says Amy.  &amp;quot;Living through this made us immensely closer&amp;quot; Michele and Michael Coss Married 10 years When the first tornado siren went off in Joplin, MO, on May 22, Michele Coss admits that she ignored it. &amp;quot;They go off all the time in the spring and nothing happens,&amp;quot; says the 39-year-old mother of two. When the second siren sounded, her husband, Michael, went outside to take a look. He raced back in seconds later: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s coming. Get the kids and get under the house right now!&amp;quot; Michele scooped up their 6-month-old son, Collin, and their daughter, Kacy, 7, and they ran \u2014 the twister hit just moments after Michael slammed the basement hatch closed. &amp;quot;The noises were unreal. We could hear things crashing above our heads,&amp;quot; says Michele. Like the Burnetts, the family emerged to find that the tornado had ravaged their home. &amp;quot;My daughter&amp;#039;s bed was in our neighbor&amp;#039;s tree. What if she had been in it? I couldn&amp;#039;t believe the destruction. For six years, Mike and I poured our hearts into fixing up that house, and now there&amp;#039;s nothing,&amp;quot; says Michele, tearily. When Michael&amp;#039;s parents came to drive Michele and the kids to safety, Michael stayed behind to help other neighbors go house to house, shutting off gas and looking for people trapped in the rubble. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s just who my husband is. He wasn&amp;#039;t going to walk away from everybody,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Before the tornado, our marriage hit a rough patch. Mike was out of work last year, we had to cut back on a ton of stuff, and then I got pregnant. The stress tore us apart. But living through this has made us immensely closer and helped us see how much we truly need each other. There are people out here who are in our situation, but they&amp;#039;re also planning a funeral for their spouse or child. That right there makes you count your blessings.&amp;quot;   &amp;quot;We survived in the only room left standing&amp;quot; Renee and Dustin May Married 8 years When two tornadoes hit Renee and Dustin May&amp;#039;s Tuscaloosa, AL, home on April 27, the family ran into the bathroom \u2014 one of the safest places to take cover during a storm, because of the sturdy framework needed for piping. Their 2-year-old daughter, Oakley, was crouched on the floor of the shower, crying for her daddy to &amp;quot;make it stop!&amp;quot; \u2014 while Dustin struggled to hold the bathroom door shut as the wind tore off the roof, shingle by shingle. &amp;quot;I remember thinking that the storm could take me, but it could not have my child,&amp;quot; says Renee, 30. It took only a few minutes for the twisters to destroy everything on their 30-acre farm \u2014 except the bathroom they were in. &amp;quot;The rest of the house was in a pile around us. I couldn&amp;#039;t believe we survived without a scratch,&amp;quot; says Renee. The family is now back on their land, living in a trailer donated by a friend. &amp;quot;Dustin and I have become such a team as we put the pieces of our lives back together,&amp;quot; she says. She&amp;#039;s also seen a softer side of her typically stoic husband: When she got scared that another storm might threaten their area days after they were hit, Dustin stayed home from work to comfort her. &amp;quot;His actions helped me realize just how much he cares, and I appreciate him even more. We&amp;#039;ve had more heart-to-heart talks in the last month than we did the first year of our marriage.&amp;quot;   Crisis Advice From a Couple Who&amp;#039;s Been There Sherry and Darrell Miller have a unique perspective on what happened to so many families this spring. In 2009, a tornado upended their lives too: They had just enough time to gather their three children on the living room floor of their Aiken, SC, mobile home before the trailer was airborne, flying off the ground in 165 mph winds. They made it out with minor injuries, but their trailer was no longer livable. Now, two years later, Sherry offers wisdom that any couple in turmoil can use.  Disaster can be enlightening. &amp;quot;If I ever doubted Darrell&amp;#039;s love, I knew how he felt after that night. It was amazing how he took care of us, starting with taking the shirt off his back and giving it to my youngest son, Gary, because he wasn&amp;#039;t wearing one and it was cold. We&amp;#039;ve been married for five years, and I take comfort knowing he&amp;#039;ll always be there when we need him.&amp;quot; Nothing will ever be the same \u2014 it&amp;#039;ll be better. &amp;quot;Before the storm, we argued about money and how to raise teenagers, but now that all seems so silly. We can never stay mad for long, because we know just how lucky we are to still have each other. That trumps everything.&amp;quot; Bad times are temporary. &amp;quot;Take one day at a time and try to show each other as much love as you can. Few people can say they cheated death \u2014 we did. It&amp;#039;s formed this unbelievable bond between us, because who knows you better than the person you went through the storm with?&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/friends-family/a12247/tornado-survivors/>