‘It was so evil’: Mississippi mother recalls tornado that killed her husband and daughter

WREN, Miss. (WTVA) — Elizabeth Herndon went through something most people will fortunately not have to experience.

An EF-3 tornado struck her family’s home in Monroe County on the night of March 24.

The storm killed her husband Ethan Herndon and their 2-year-old daughter Riley Herndon. She and her other children were severely injured but survived.

“There really are no other words,” she said of that night. “It was just, it was horrible — worst experience thus far in my life. And I pray that I never go through anything like this ever again.”

That night, she and her family were preparing to go to bed. Ethan Herndon had to work the next day. They were aware of the weather and believed the storm was dying down.

“So we kind of felt a little bit more secure and sort of like it was OK to maybe wind down for the night,” she recalled.

They were watching live weather coverage.

“That’s when we heard, you know, White Rock [Road] and McAllister [Road], and I looked at [Ethan] and we just knew. I said, you know, ‘That’s us.’”

She continued, “And that’s when the power went out. And we really didn’t hear anything. We had enough time to get the pillows over our children, which was our main focus was to protect them.”

For a few seconds, they heard nothing.

“I was kind of expecting some kind of roar or some kind of you know, they say a train, sounds like a train. I didn’t hear any of that. I just remember hearing complete silence until it hit and then it was just an un-describable noise.”

If you would like to donate to help the family recover, you can do so through their GoFundMe page.

Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.

Copyright 2023 WLBT. All rights reserved.