By Suzie Ziegler
GRAVES COUNTY, Ky. — Two Kentucky deputies are being hailed heroes for saving an injured girl – just moments after they were pummeled by a deadly tornado. The officers were caught in their patrol cars on Friday when the storm passed; the devastation would leave 74 dead in Kentucky alone.
In an interview with CNN, Graves County Deputy Chandler Siris and Sgt. Richard Edwards described the dramatic events.
“The wind picked up and it picked my vehicle and turned it sideways,” Edwards told CNN’s John Berman on Monday. "[Siris] was behind me and we just couldn’t do anything. We just sat there. We tried to duck down and just hold on.”
“There was some fiberglass that went through my passenger side window that hit me and there was about an 8-foot piece of wood that came through the back of my car and pierced it,” Siris said.
After the worst had passed, the deputies left their patrol cars and ran to the nearest house for shelter. That’s when they heard people yelling for help, Edwards told CNN. The pair sprinted back to their patrol cars to get a “go bags” and then back to the house.
[RELATED: What you should carry in a GO bag]
Another deputy on scene led them to a girl who was “very profusely bleeding,” Edwards said.
“She was going into shock,” he told CNN. “We applied the tourniquet. We called for medics, (but) there’s no way they could have got to us so we went outside and found an old interior panel door and we used that as a backboard. We loaded her up.”
Edwards didn’t have a detailed update on the girl’s condition, but says he heard she is expected to survive.
[RELATED: 6 tips for effective tourniquet training]
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=215083360776175&set=pb.100068235378126.-2207520000