'Angel's reunited with her family': Grandfather's tears for tragic orphaned toddler who was blown 300 yards into a field, as she dies of her injuries
- Angel Babcock, 14 months, sustained severe head injuries
- Grandparents made decision to turn off life support with doctors
- Jack Brough, grandfather, said: 'God will bring you and all of us out of this'
- 83-year-old woman whose body was washed into a creek died after trying to take shelter in drain pipe
- 39 killed in deadliest Midwest outbreak in 40 years
- Homes destroyed across Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama with 9 states affected
- Desperate search for survivors continues as southeast braced for tornadoes
Tragic loss: Angel Babcock, 14 months, died in hospital today after being thrown by a tornado in Indiana
Her grandparents decided with doctors to remove 14-month-old Angel Babcock from life support due to the severity of her head injuries.
Jack Brough, Angel’s grandfather, told MailOnline: 'Angel has been reunited with her parents. We want to thank God for all of you and for your thoughts and prayers. God will bring you and all of us out of this. This is what it will take. All should look to God.'
Mr Brough also thanked the staff at the Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky for their efforts to save his granddaughter's life.
Angel Babcock was found by rescuers forty miles west of Chelsea, in Salem, Indiana close to the bodies of her mother and two siblings.
Rondale Brishaber, the Washington County coroner, identified the girl’s family as Joseph Babcock, 21, Moriah Brough, 20, Jayden Babcock, two, and two-month-old Kendall Babcock.
As the family now struggled to come to terms with the loss of Angel, relatives revealed the full extent of what her grandfather Jack Brough had to endure.
Angel's aunt Carol Brough, 51, said: 'Jack and his other daughter Kendra, who is 17, were on their way to see Moriah when the tornado alarm sounded.
'Moriah called Jack and told him and he turned back and told her: ''Get out of the house! Get out of the trailer!''
'Moriah and her family were trying to move to a bigger trailer and the tornado just swept through and grabbed them. It picked up a neighbour who came to help them and just whipped him.
'He had broken bones but I think he is OK. About an hour later, Jack and Kendra came back to see their family and they saw somebody picking up the body of a young boy. He went a bit closer and realised it was his grandson.
'Then he realised his whole family had been wiped out. I can't imagine what went through his mind. He was unable to identify Moriah's body because he was too upset and Kendra had to do that.
'I think Jack is just being strong now for the rest of us but when his family are put to rest he will break down.
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At peace: 14-month-old Angel Babcock suffered severe head injuries and died after she was taken off life support today at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky
Survivor: Angel Babcock, left, was originally found alive in a field close to her home in Indiana. Her baby sister Kendall, right, did not survive
Loss: The tornado also claimed the lives of Angel's older brother Jayden, left, and her parents Joseph Babcock and Moriah Brough, pictured right
'I had hoped that Angel was going to be the one to survive. I am a Christian woman and I thought that if God had chosen one to keep down here, then it would have been her because of her name, but no.
'I guess the only good thing is that she would have had a life dealing with the complications from the injuries and at least she is at peace now.'
Family friend Sherry Henley added: 'Jo (Joseph Brough) was a wonderful father and did everything for his family. He worked all hours in a saw mill to provide for them and his wife would always do anything for anybody. I have so many happy memories of him and his children. I can't believe they are all gone.'
Officials at Kosair Children's Hospital said that Angel had surgery on Friday night to relieve some of the pressure on her brain but it did not stop the swelling.
Doctors were surprised by her 'resilience' but the toddler's injuries proved to be too severe. Members of her family were by her side when the life support machine was turned off.
A long clean-up: Bulldozers work through the damage at Henryville High School in Indiana today
Ruins: Jamie Fannin (left), daughter Jade (centre) and wife Novella look through the rubble of their home which was destroyed by a tornado in West Liberty, Kentucky
Strength: An American flag hangs in front of a home in Henryville, Indiana as the sun shines through the ruins
'I don’t even want to believe it,' Justin Henley, Mr Babcock's best friend, told ABC News 7. '[Joseph] loved everybody. He never talked bad about anybody. He’s just a good person and he loved his kids a lot.'
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY TORNADOES?
The recent barrage of tornadoes has been caused by warm weather and a low-dipping jet stream across the U.S., according to experts.
Tornado season typically strikes from spring to early summer - but this year's outbreak which began last week showed that a mild winter can heighten the risk of storms.
Adding to the dangerous conditions was a low jet stream, moving at a pace of 150mph across the South and Midwest, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The stream brings cold air down from Canada, mixing with the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. The potent mix of the two air masses often results in severe weather.
The warm air and fast-moving jet stream fueled the tornadoes.
Tornado season typically strikes from spring to early summer - but this year's outbreak which began last week showed that a mild winter can heighten the risk of storms.
Adding to the dangerous conditions was a low jet stream, moving at a pace of 150mph across the South and Midwest, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The stream brings cold air down from Canada, mixing with the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. The potent mix of the two air masses often results in severe weather.
The warm air and fast-moving jet stream fueled the tornadoes.
However later reports revealed the bodies had been found around 300 yards from their home.
Angel Babcock was the only survivor. She died at 4.10 pm today of a traumatic brain injury.
Tornadoes have ravaged the South and Midwest, destroying homes, claiming lives and tearing roofs from cars and buildings.
Authorities reported a total of 39 deaths, including 14 in Indiana, where the town of Henryville suffered extensive damage - felled trees, wrecked homes and a collapsed high school.
The death toll was expected to rise as state troopers, the National Guard and rescue teams made their way through counties cut off by debris-littered roads and knocked down cellphone towers.
A volunteer coordination center was being established for those who wanted to help out in the tornado-devastated communities of southern Indiana.
Emergency management officials said they will open the center in downtown Jeffersonville tomorrow.
State police Sgt Jerry Goodin said anyone wanting to volunteer can register at the center, where they will be given specific tasks in the hard-hit towns of Henryville and Marysville.
Sgt Goodin added that utility crews were working to eliminate the danger posed by downed electrical lines and leaking natural gas lines, making it safer for non-trained volunteers to work in those communities.
The landscape was littered with everything from sheet metal and insulation to crushed cars and, in one place, a fire hydrant, making travel difficult.
An overturned car sat on top of a pile of wood planks and crumpled metal outside City Hall in West Liberty, Kentucky. The storm had tossed two police cruisers into the brick building.
At least five people died in Morgan County, where the town is located, and authorities were only allowing people who lived or owned property in the town to enter.
Terrible force: A bus thrown by a tornado ploughed into the front of a restaurant in Henryville
National concern: A news helicopter flies over wrecked homes where the roofs lie splintered in back yards
Heartache: A woman stands on the stairs of her wrecked home. Emergency crews were being organised to help communities devastated by the tornadoes
Picking through the wreckage: Residents search for valuables and personal possessions in the debris of homes that were hit by the tornado
Battered: Airport officials look at a crumpled, small plane after it flipped over during the tornado
Destroyed: Governor Mitch Daniels visits survivors in Indiana after tornadoes ravaged towns including Henryville and Marysville - which was completely wiped out
Destroyed: Tornadoes have ravaged towns in Southern Indiana, including Henryville and Marysville (pictured) which was 'completely gone'
TORNADO DEATH TOLL
Total deaths - 39
Alabama - 1
Georgia - 1
Indiana - 13
Kentucky - 21
Ohio - 3
Alabama - 1
Georgia - 1
Indiana - 13
Kentucky - 21
Ohio - 3
Meanwhile a four-year old boy ripped from his mother's arms as they huddled together in a cellar did not survive the night's storms.
Davlin Terry Jackson and his great grandparents, Terry and Carol Jackson who were upstairs during the twister, were found dead in a field behind their home.
'We lost a very good farmer, a good neighbor and his wife their great grand-baby,' Tony Williams, owner of the Chelsea General Store told ABCNews.com.
'She was in the cellar with the boy when the tornado hit. It blew him right out of her hands.'
The Rev. Kenneth Jett of the West Liberty United Methodist Church recalled how he and five others huddled together in a little cubby hole in the basement as the church collapsed in the storm.
'We're thankful to God,' he said. 'It was a miracle that the five of us survived.'
About 20 miles east, a twister demolished Henryville. The second story of the elementary school was torn off and wind blew out the windows and gutted the Henryville Community Presbyterian Church. Few recognizable buildings remained.
Saved: Woman hugs her cat Thumbelina after it was pulled from the debris of her home, which was destroyed by a tornado
From above: An aerial view of destruction in Campbell County
Open air: Home owner in Harrison, Tennessee begins cleaning up his scattered possessions
A secretary at the school said a bus left Friday afternoon with 11 children, but the driver turned back after realizing they were driving straight into the storm. The children were ushered into the nurse's station and were hiding under tables and desks when the tornado struck. None were hurt.
The school bus, which was parked in front of the school, was tossed several hundred yards into the side of a nearby restaurant.
Todd and Julie Money were hiding there, having fled their Scottsburg home, which has no basement. They were in the basement of their friend's restaurant when the tornado struck.
'Unreal. The pressure on your body, your ears pop, trees snap,' Todd Money said. 'When that bus hit the building, we thought it exploded.'
'It was petrifying,' Julie Money added. 'God put us here for a reason.'
The body of an 83-year-old woman was washed into a creek after she was killed when she tried to take shelter in a drainage pipe.
Alpharetta police spokesman George Gordon says the body of Patricia Barnette was found Saturday in a creek more than 100 yards from her home north of Atlanta. The woman is believed to be the first death in Georgia as a result of the violent storms.
Entire towns have been decimated and in some cases, wiped off the map entirely. The town of Marysville - home to 1,900 residents - is 'completely gone',according to Clark County Sheriff’s Department Major Chuck Adams, and multiple injuries have been reported.
In Henryville, where all schools have been destroyed, helicopter images show how debris-littered homes, uprooted trees and cars dented by baseball-sized hail. Scores of people are still unaccounted for across the state.
Blown open: The side of a home, damaged by a tornado, in seen in Marysville, Indiana
Comfort: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, right, hugs constituent Cecile Zollman
Water-logged: Flooding in Marysville, Indiana
Aftermath: A piece of metal has been wrapped around a tree by the powerful winds
Crushed: Twisters pounded blocks of homes, knocked out cellphones and landlines, ripped power lines from broken poles and tossed cars, school buses and tractor-trailers onto roads made impassable by debris
Supplies: A Red Cross relief truck brings food and drinks to workers as they clean-up
Family support: Sisters embrace as they take in the devastation
Town quiet: A gas station in Henryville, Indiana, which suffered extensive damage
Overturned: A 18-wheeler is flipped on its side in Harvest, Alabama because of the violent storm
Brutalised: A damaged truck is seen among debris in Marysville, Indiana
Devastation: A string of violent storms demolished small towns in Indiana and cut off rural communities in Kentucky as an early season tornado outbreak killed more than 30 people
In Kentucky, the National Guard and state police headed out to search wreckage for an unknown number of missing. In Indiana, authorities searched dark county roads connecting rural communities that officials said 'are completely gone.'
In Henryville, the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders, volunteers pushed shopping carts full of water and food down littered streets, handing supplies to anyone in need. Hundreds of firefighters and police zipped around town, where few recognizable structures remained; all of Henryville's schools were destroyed. Wind had blown out the windows of the Henryville Community Presbyterian Church and gutted the building.
'It's all gone,' said Andy Bell, who was guarding a friend's demolished service garage, not far from where a school bus stuck out from the side of a restaurant and a parking lot where a small classroom chair jutted from a car window.
'It was beautiful,' he said, looking around at the town of about 2,000 north of Louisville, Ky. 'And now it's just gone. I mean, gone.'
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels spoke to reporters Saturday outside what was left of Henryville High School. He marveled that all the students were safe and credited preparation and people heeding warnings to take shelter for saving lives.
'Yet all things that mere mortals can do aren't enough sometimes,' he said.
Daniels said he wanted residents to know 'we love you, and we're with you. We're going to do everything we can to get you back on your feet in business, in your homes, and bear with us.'
More severe storms were expected Saturday across parts of southern Georgia and northern Florida.
Friday's storms covered a larger area but appeared to be less deadly than the tornadoes that killed more than 240 people in Alabama last spring.
'I think the concentration of more intense tornados was higher in the April 27 event,' said Corey Mead, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. 'It was a very much more focused corridor.'
The storm system that swept across the Mississippi River Valley into Ohio, Tennessee and the Gulf Coast featured strong winds that changed direction and increased in speed as they rose in the atmosphere, creating a spin, Mead said. Tornadoes developed when the cold air in the storm system hit warm air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico, he said.
'We knew this was coming. We were watching the weather like everyone else,' said Clark County, Ind., Sheriff Danny Rodden. 'This was the worst case scenario. There's no way you can prepare for something like this.'
Untold damage: Woman stands with her sister outside her home, which was damaged by a tornado in Holton, Indiana
Human cost: Father and son inspect the home of the father's mother after it was hit by the deadly twister
Survivor search: Search and rescue crews mark houses checked for survivors with a cross
Homeless: Dogs wait as their owners pack their belongings as they prepare to leave their damaged house
Ruined: Residents look over the remains of an 110 year old St Joseph's Catholic Church in Ridgeway, Illinois
Blasted open: Fire crews examine damage to a hangar and aircraft caused by an overnight tornado at Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport
Thankful meeting: Pet owner is reunited with his dog in Marysville, Indiana
Survival story: Janine Stauffacher, left, comforts her sister, Mary Ann Holt, after she survived in the closet of her home
Remains of the day: A man roots through what is left of his storm damaged home for his belongings
Struck: A home sits destroyed at a farm on in Union County, Kentucky. Left: A woman salvages a doll from her sister's home
Path of destruction: In this aerial photo, a home lies demolished next to a home virtually untouched
'They found them in the field, back behind the house,' Williams said.
Locator: Marysville has been 'wiped off the map', while nearby Henryville has suffered extensive damage
Devastated: Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in East Limestone, Alabama today
Gone: In Harrison, Tennessee, Jennie Hood stands near her belongings after the tornado tore down her home
'We are going to continue to hit every county road that we know of that there are homes on and search those homes,' said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin. 'We have whole communities and whole neighborhoods that are completely gone. We've had a terrible, terrible tragedy here.'
Sixteen people were reported dead in Kentucky, where National Guard troops, Kentucky State Police troopers and rescue workers were still searching counties east and south of Lexington.
In West Liberty, Ky., Stephen Burton heard the twister coming and pulled his 23-year-old daughter to safety, just before the tornado destroyed the second story of the family's home.
'I held onto her and made it to the center of the house, next to a closet,' Burton said. 'I just held onto her, and I felt like I was getting sand-blasted on my back.'
Endre Samu, public affairs officer for the Kentucky State Police in Morehead, said three people died in West Liberty and at least 75 were injured. With the hospital damaged in the storm, some patients were being transferred to area hospitals, he said.
'All of the downtown area was just devastated,' Samu said.
Tornadoes were reported in at least six Ohio cities and towns, including the village of Moscow, where a council member found dead in her home was one of at least three people killed in the state. Several dozen homes were damaged, some stripped down to their foundations, and the Clermont County commissioners called a state of emergency for the first time in 15 years.
One person was reported dead Saturday in Alabama. Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Yasamie August said an apparent tornado that hit Jackson Gap injured two others as well. She didn't have more details.
As night fell on Friday, residents shuffled through the town, some searching for relatives, while rescue workers trawled rubble for survivors. Without power, the only light came from cars crawling along the streets.
'We knew this was coming. We were watching the weather like everyone else,' said Sheriff Danny Rodden. 'This was the worst case scenario. There's no way you can prepare for something like this.'
Video footage captured by WLKY in Louisville, Kentucky shows a mangled school bus protruding from the side of a one-story building and dozens of overturned trucks.
In Ohio, 64-year-old Carol Forste was found dead in her home along with her dog, who had broken all four legs and will be put down. James Prater, 54, was found dead in his mobile home in Bethel.
'We are going to continue to hit every county road that we know of that there are homes on and search those homes,' said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin.
'We have whole communities and whole neighborhoods that are completely gone. We've had a terrible, terrible tragedy here.'
Kentucky Emergency Management spokesman Buddy Rogers said officials were having difficulty getting into the area to confirm the damage.
Dozens of homes, businesses, schools and vehicles were also flattened or damaged across Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee.
Wasteland: Businesses, schools and vehicles were also flattened or damaged across Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee
Deaths: Officials confirmed 34 dead with thousands more missing Above, what is left of Henryville High School, Indiana
Aghast: A woman looks through her storm-damaged home outside Henrysville for belongings she can salvage
At least 10 homes were damaged in a subdivision in Athens. Homeowner Bill Adams watched as two men ripped shingles off the roof of a house he rents out, and he fretted about predictions that more storms would pass through.
'Hopefully they can at least get a tarp on it before it starts again,' he said.
An apparent tornado also damaged a state maximum-security prison about 10 miles from Huntsville, but none of the facility's approximately 2,100 inmates escaped.
Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbette said there were no reports of injuries, but the roof was damaged on two large prison dormitories that each hold about 250 men.
Part of the perimeter fence was knocked down, but the prison was secure. 'It was reported you could see the sky through the roof of one of them,' Mr Corbette said.
At least 20 homes were damaged in Chattanooga, Tennessee after strong winds and hail lashed the area.
Clean-up: Residents work to clear storm damage after tornadoes moved through the area
Windy city: The tornadoes moved through the area in Henryville, Indiana, killing at least 10 people in the hard-hit state of Indiana
'It just happened so fast that I didn't know what to do. I was going to head to the closet but there was just no way. It just got us.'
By early Friday afternoon, tornado watches covered parts of those states along with Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
In Norman, Oklahoma, forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center said they were bracing for what could be a potent tornado outbreak.
'Maybe five times a year we issue what is kind of the highest risk level for us at the Storm Prediction Center,' forecaster Corey Mead said. 'This is one of those days.'
Mead said a powerful storm system was interacting with humid, unstable air that was streaming north from the Gulf of Mexico. 'The environment just becomes more unstable and provides the fuel for the thunderstorms,' Mr Mead said.
Schools sent students home early or cancelled classes entirely in states including Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.
The 9,000-resident town of Harrisburg was sacked by a twister about 5 a.m. on Wednesday that killed six people. Forecasters weren't expecting the area to be hit hard by the newest storms, though.
The forecast in Harrisburg didn't much matter to Amanda Patrick, who lost her home on Wednesday, in the same twister that killed her neighbours in the area where most of the fatalities occurred.
'I don't know what to tell you other than I take it one moment, one day at a time,' Ms Patrick, 31, said a day after riding out the storm in the bathtub she barely was able to crawl into for shelter before the twister hit.
She considers herself blessed, having thought the sirens that wailed as the tornado barreled down on her neighborhood was actually part of her dream.
She awakened just minutes before the tornado hit and hours later couldn't stop sobbing over the neighbors she lost.
'I'm not crying as much now. I'm here right now, standing,' she said on Thursday. 'Now, I will get up every time I hear a siren.'
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