Baby Found Safe In Tree Branches After Being Grabbed By Tornado

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The tornado splintered the wood-frame home and grabbed 18-month-old Jonathan Waldick.

But the deadly twister seemed to have a change of heart when confronted with a child. The same winds that had snatched Jonathan snapped the top off a nearby oak and deposited him in its protective branches.

There the baby lay nestled safely in his mattress while around him the world seemed to be coming to an end. Hail and rain pelted the ground. The concrete house next door crumbled. Giant trees snapped.

And Jonathan got a bump on his head.

But Shirley Driver didn't know that. She was sleeping in her bed with Jonathan's 4-year-old sister, Destiny, when the storm hit. She is the children's great-grandmother and was taking care of them.

Driver woke up to find Destiny safe, but where was Jonathan? It appeared the awful answer was under the huge pile of debris.

Word of the tragedy spread. At Lakeview Elementary School in St. Cloud, which was an emergency shelter, tornado survivors talked about a baby whisked out its mother's arms and into the sky.

Ron Vernelson, who was helping his son next door, came over to help search for Jonathan. Other rescuers also arrived.

"We started looking, but there was no bedroom," he said.

After combing through rubble for 40 minutes, one of the men spotted something at eye level in the oak branches.

"I think I see a foot," he said.

They investigated, and they soon saw the rest of Jonathan. His eyes were wide open, but he wasn't making a sound.

He's dead, said a deputy.

Then, the foot moved.

"I kept calling his name, and he started to whimper," Vernelson said. "I said, `The baby is alive.' "

Another volunteer - a slimmer man - slid through the tangled mass of boards and limbs to pull Jonathan out.

"The mattress saved him," Vernelson said. "He was just lying on the mattress sideways."