Florida Woman Fleeing Tornado Uses Panic to Save Lives

Crisis management experts often advise people facing potentially catastrophic situations not to panic. In this case, one woman’s panic while trying to escape an advancing tornado may have saved lives.

Michelle Westfield was just trying to get to her home in the Spanish Lakes community of St. Lucie County, Florida, when she found herself driving toward an oncoming twister. It had been spawned by Hurricane Milton. She saw debris flying into the funnel cloud. So she at once knew that if she didn’t slam on her brakes and get out of there, she’d get sucked into the vortex too. 

“I’m a woman who panicked and fight or flight kicked in,” Westfield told CNN. She hammered the gas in reverse. She then drove backwards as fast as she could to get away from the tornado.  

In her panic, however, Westfield had the presence of mind to alert as many others as possible. She honked her horn and screamed out the window. Brandi Clarke, who was outside with her husband video recording the flooding road in front of her house, got the message.

“She is screaming, ‘Get inside!’” Clarke recalled for CNN. Clarke and her husband ran indoors and ordered their children to gather in a hallway in the middle of the house. Soon after, their home started shaking violently. That tornado, among others that destroyed many houses in the neighborhood and left six people dead, would have killed the Clarkes too, she insisted.

“(Westfield) deserves a hero award,” Clark told CNN. 

Westfield doesn't think so. “All I can say is God puts us where we’re supposed to be,” she told WPEC-TV. “I’m not a hero ... I was an old lady in panic mode, that’s all I am, that was it.”  

Reflect: How do you effectively manage your emotions in high-pressure situations to make better decisions?

Photo of damage in St. Lucie County, Florida, from Reuters.