The image of bloodied teacher Ledonna Cobb and her husband leading two young children away from obliterated Briarwood Elementary School became one of the images that defined that tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma.
Last night, Cobb told the story of her desperate struggle to stay on the ground in order to protect the students she was huddled with inside a classroom as the monstrous EF-5 twister whipped around them.
“I was just grabbing onto whatever I could. Once the roof came off the building I felt myself being sucked and I knew that if I was taken, then all the babies underneath me would be gone too. And so I just held on, I held on for dear life,” a bruised Cobb told ABC’s Diane Sawyer, holding back tears.
SCENES FROM THE DEVASTATING TORNADO
AUTHORITIES CONTINUE SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS, BODIES
Cobb endured for as long as she could, but eventually a wall fell on top of her and she was knocked unconscious.
Later a battered and bloodied Cobb would be seen walking behind her husband Steve as he clutched their daughter, Jordan, to his chest.
“I just tried to be the best dad that I could at that time, I wanted [Jordan] to feel like she was safe and that we were all going to be OK, ” Steve Cobb said.
“I wished I could have split myself into two and stayed there and kind of help out those other kids because I can imagine how they were feeling at that time, when their parents weren’t there and they were wandering around.”
The Cobb’s stayed at the devastated school even after they found their daughter so that they could try to comfort other terrified children.
“I just couldn’t leave the other kids, they are all so special to me and I couldn’t leave them,” Ledonna said. “I wanted my family to be safe but I also wanted everybody else’s family to be safe too.”
Sawyer also spoke to the Cobb’s daughter Jordan, who said that the tornado felt like it lasted forever.
“It seemed like it was an hour,” Jordan said. “It was crazy, I can’t even believe that we survived that.”
Jordan then went on to tell Sawyer about how she cried out for help after fallen debris trapped her leg during the terrifying tornado.
“I tried to get up, I tried to move the bricks off of my leg, and it hurt so much,” Jordan said.
“I was just screaming, ‘Help! My leg! My leg!’ but nobody could hear me.”
Unbelievably, all of the students at Briarwood Elementary survived the ordeal even though the school took a direct hit from the monstrous tornado.