Tornado destroys Maury County law officer's home

SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) - A longtime law officer who has made a lifetime out of responding to other people's emergencies had one of his own Wednesday night after a tornado decimated his home.

Sam Barnes is currently an elected constable in Maury County.

On Wednesday, May 8, he had just returned home. His wife was cooking dinner and it was a normal night, until he heard the roar outside.

Barnes said he stepped outside of his Blackburn Lane home and looked over the hill toward the darkening sky.

"I could see it across the hillside. I didn't know what it was, but I had a pretty good idea," Barnes told News 2.

With the tornado approaching, Barnes and his wife took refuge under the stairs in the basement.

"And then we felt it. You could actually feel the rumble of it. I didn't have time to do anything, time to do nothing, I mean we had no time," Barnes recalled.

According to Barnes, the pressure suddenly changed and he felt powerful air tearing through the basement, beginning to move him.

"It was tearing everything up. It was pushing me while I was holding on to her and it was pushing. I watched the downstairs doors get sucked out of the house 20 yards from us," Barnes said.

And just like that, the spinning vortex moved on, leaving the Barnes' family with only their lives.

Barnes said the tornado was gone in about 30 seconds to a minute, adding that the area looks like a war zone. Regardless, Barnes and his wife are grateful to be alive.

"Love everybody for as much as you can, as long as you can, because you never know what is going to happen," Barnes said.

Barnes is currently waiting on insurance adjusters and structural engineers to tell him just how bad the damage is. He said he plans to rebuild the home his wife grew up in.

Barnes added he feels fortunate because this same storm severely injured some of his nearby neighbors.