One of the Tornados that ripped through southeast Missouri on Friday hit a household with three children in it: Alanna Rackley (3), Avalinn Rackley (7), and Annistyn Rackley (9).
Their parents, Trey and Meghan Rackley, took refuge with their three daughters in their windowless bathroom, in a house they recently moved into on December 4, 2021. Meghan snapped a photo of the girls and sent it to her Aunt, Sandra Hooker, to show that they were in a safe place as the storm approached.
The photo shows the three sisters, two of which are snuggled together in the tub, smiling for the photo while the oldest, Annistyn, held her baby doll.
Hooker shared that it was fifteen minutes after she received that photo that a tornado ripped through her niece’s house, picking the entire family up into the air and spitting them out many yards away into a field. Trey, Meghan, Alanna, and Avalinn all survived. Tragically, the 9 year-old Annistyn, a third grader who enjoyed swimming, dancing, and cheerleading, did not.
“When they got the new house, we started talking about where are you going to go, what’s going to be your safe place,” Hooker shared in a video posted by the Associated Press. “They had determined that this interior bathroom with no windows would be their ‘safe place.’”
