NEW HARTFORD - Dennis Platt and his family had only 15 seconds to react before the tornado took their house.
Platt says, "We heard the sirens and everything got calm and the wind started blowing real heavily. Started seeing debris go sideways. We ran down in that little room."
As a Church of Christ pastor, Platt says he always believed in God's saving grace. But huddled in the little room at the bottom of the basement stairs with his two daughters and wife, he says their survival seemed impossible.
"Girls went to screaming. Carla went to praying. And I was just hoping it was over."
In the end, they walked away unharmed from that room, the only thing still standing. Across the street, his 72-year-old neighbor, Leasa Bleeker, was found dead in a ditch just a few feet away from her own home.
Bleeker's granddaughter, Shelia Callan, says, "Just seeing her there, I just cried and held her."
As Bleeker's family sifts through the remains of her house, Platt's church congregation helps with his.
He says, "We've been extremely blessed by good Christian friends. That's all there is to it."
Platt adds that he still doesn't understand God's plan here or why the storm killed his neighbor, but spared his own family.
Bleeker was one of two people killed in New Hartford during the tornado.
Email Josh Hinkle at Josh.Hinkle@kcrg.com
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