Tennessee tornado: Baby found alive and well up a tree after home and car destroyed

A four-month-old baby was found alive and well in a tree after a deadly tornado tore apart the family's mobile home and picked up a bassinet with the baby still inside it last Saturday (December 9). The parents say the child was found safe "by the grace of God" after he survived and was discovered in a fallen tree in the pouring rain.

The baby, his one-year-old brother and his parents only suffered from minor cuts and bruises. When the tornado approached, the mother of two, 22-year-old Sydney Moore, said the roof of their mobile home was ripped off. "The tip of the tornado came down and picked up the bassinet with my baby, Lord, in it," Ms Moore told a local news station. "He was the first thing to go up."

Her boyfriend - and the boy's father - lunged to protect Lord in the bassinet, but ended up getting picked up by the tornado, too. Ms Moore said: "He was just holding on to the bassinet the whole time, and they went into circles, he said, and then they got thrown. Something in me just told me to run and jump on top of my son (Princeton). Literally, the moment I jumped on him, the walls collapsed. I was being really crushed. I couldn't breathe."

After the tornado passed, Ms Moore was able to escape the crush of the rubble with Princeton. She and her boyfriend immediately started searching for Lord in the pouring rain and found their baby - alive - in what Ms Moore says "looked like a little tree cradle".

Ms Moore said: "I thought he was dead. I was pretty sure he was dead and we weren't going to find him. But he's here, and that's by the grace of God."

Caitlyn Moore, Ms Moore's sister, started a GoFundMe appeal to help them after the tornado completely destroyed their car and home. The children and Ms Moore escaped with only minor cuts and bruises, but her boyfriend suffered a broken arm and shoulder, Caitlyn said.

According to the GoFundMe, Lord "looked like he was placed on the tree gently" - as if "an angel guided him safely to that spot."

"I will die for my kids. That's not even a question. And my boyfriend would do the same thing," Ms Moore said.