'Everybody inside is screaming,' Sulphur survivors save others Saturday night
SULPHUR, Okla. (KFOR) - Two women hurt during the deadly tornado that hit Sulphur Saturday night, managed to pull five survivors from the rubble of Raina's Lounge in Sulphur.
"That's where we crawled out from," said Misti King in a video they captured after. She and Courtney Guthrie looked back on the terrifying night.
King said that Guthrie was in town for the time being but lived outside of Oklahoma, she said it was all bad timing.
The two were like family and just wanted a night to have fun, they said they hadn't been to Raina's but about a handful of times.
That night was karaoke night at Raina's and there were over a dozen people inside. The group rode out the storm together. King said that she had a song in mind that she wanted to sing on stage before things turned due to the weather.
Before she took the stage the tornado tore through downtown Sulphur and destroyed the building they were all in.
"I just remember that we had our backs to the windows and all of a sudden the windows blew out," said Guthrie. "My phone at one point blew out of my hand, I watched it as it flew up into the air away from me. I think that's about the time that I got hit in the head and I got six staples from that."
The tornado brought down the building, the roof collapsed, and the stage fell. Bricks and other debris were flung at patrons, hitting them at over 100 miles an hour.
Pictures of the two show massive gashes all over King's body, along with one on top of her head.
"I did think that I was paralyzed because I remember getting hit in the back. I felt like I couldn't move and I said no, I'm going to get out of this," said King.
Guthrie was still wearing her leather high-heels as she tried walking through all of the rubble.
The two said they found a small hole underneath bricks and wood where they were able to crawl out. But instead of getting to their vehicle and getting away, they turned around.
"The lights go out, it's dark, it gets past us. It's so dark but everybody inside is screaming," said King, they were going to save as many as they could.
"I start yelling for them to stay low, stay calm, don't get their blood pressure up, they could start bleeding out," said King.
She said they were able to get five people out of the rubble, two went with them to the vehicle. When they got to the car, they found that a cutting table from the lounge had been thrown against it and made it impossible to drive.
"I grabbed that thing by the legs and pushed it off, I said alright let's go," said King. They all got in and took off, looking for the closest hospital or safety of some sort.
King said she knew the streets like the back of her hand and the two started thinking about where would be best.
Powerlines that had been active were lying all around Sulphur, on the roads. Debris including fallen trees were blocking them everywhere they went.
Guthrie had been calling dispatch trying to help get the group to safety somehow. She was also looking at the radar, there were potentially more storms surrounding them.
Guthrie was on the phone with dispatch making sure they could get where they needed but also making sure that they wouldn't get pulled over while driving.
The dispatch told Guthrie that they would be fine.
Finally, they saw first responders at a fire station outside of Sulphur in Mill Creek, far outside of Sulphur.
"We drove up and I asked where I could get them to a hospital because the closest one wasn't for miles," said King.
The first responders told her they could stay there.
"I was handed some water and after I drank some I calmed down," said King.
She said she nearly passed out, she had more than likely lost a lot of blood in the process.
Several of the survivors they saved had some sort of injury. But eventually, an ambulance was able to come and bring them to safety.
While almost all were able to make it out that night, Sheila Goodman was in the bar too. Her body was found the next day, she had been in the same building as King and Guthrie.
"I would not want anybody to be in the situation we were in. I wouldn't wish it on me, on Courtney, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy," said King.
"I just couldn't believe what we were going through," said Guthrie. "I didn't lose anything and I barely got hurt."
During the interview, while both of them had several staples and stitches they were still nursing, they asked about other patrons in the bar that night. They asked how they were doing.
"Octavio, do you know if he's okay," asked King.
And at the end of the interview, King got to sing a song on camera. She sang, "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)" by Elle King and Miranda Lambert. She said she didn't get to sing "Fancy" by Reba.