ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. — A split-second decision may have saved a father and his young son’s lives as a tornado destroyed their house in Arabi, La. Tuesday night.
Jason Dickerson said he was in the den when he first heard the tornado.
“The wind and rain was blowing on the side of the house and it quit…I opened the side door and it quit and just went quiet," he said. "I knew that wasn’t a good sign.”
Dickerson told his 5-year-old son that they needed to get to the guest bathroom. But then, he said, something made him change his mind.
“Something said, ‘No,’” he said.
Instead, they got inside of an interior room in the master bathroom.
That's when the tornado hit.
“It sounded like a train,” he said. “I could feel it.”
He said the house started shaking and the tornado pulled the roof off.
“It was pulling me off the ground,” Dickerson said. As he pushed his son to safety, his “feet came off the ground a little bit. And then it was gone and I dropped."
His house was destroyed but he said his son was OK.
"The whole house is gone," he said.
Had they chosen to shelter in the guest bathroom, it may not have turned out that way, Dickerson said.
“That’s a trailer hitch sticking through the wall into that guest bathroom,” he said. “The good Lord was looking out for us.”
More damage was seen in the area, including a neighbor’s house, which was also leveled.
Officials were still surveying the damage late Tuesday.
Video sent to the WWL-TV newsroom showed an apparent tornado in the area.