Man rescues wife of 37 years after tornado destroys home

SEDGEWICK COUNTY, Kan. (KAKE) - A Kansas man pulled his wife to safety after a tornado flattened their home, trapping her under a pile of rubble.

James Moore is still in shock after living his worst nightmare April 28 when a tornado struck in Sedgewick County, Kansas. He and his wife of 37 years, Kathy Moore, lived in one of the first houses hit by the tornado.

“The lights went out, and two seconds later, my house had flipped and spun and was totally demolished,” James Moore said. “When you’re in a house full of heavy objects and you’re tumbling with them, it’s kind of hard to tell what hit you.”

After digging himself out of a pile of debris, James Moore had only one thing on his mind: finding his wife.

“I started looking around, calling my wife’s name, and I kept calling it,” he said.

For a moment, time stood still. She wasn’t responding.

“Finally, I was screaming it, and then, I heard her crying,” he said.

James Moore found his wife trapped under a pile of rubble and a giant piece of the roof that fell on her. She was crying in pain but alive.

That’s when he says a miracle happened.

“I started just lifting it off of her. … Normally, I don’t have the muscles for that stuff,” he said.

James Moore is disabled and says there’s no way he should have had the strength to get his wife out. But once she was in arms, nothing else mattered.

“When I found her, we sat there and hugged, and I told her I loved her. She said she loved me. I held her until EMS showed up,” he said.

Kathy Moore suffered a broken back and an injury to her head, but she’s going to be OK. She was recently released from the intensive care unit and will spend two to four weeks in assisted living while completing physical therapy.

James Moore ended up with deep cuts on his arm and a torn ligament from lifting the roof off her.

Their home was destroyed by the tornado, and he says he doesn’t even know where to start as he tries to salvage anything he can. But he is grateful he still has what will always matter most: his wife and best friend.

The family set up a GoFundMe for help covering their medical and rebuilding expenses.

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