Aubrey McKenzie has been afraid of storms her whole life. During an afternoon, an EF-2 tornado with winds reaching 130 miles per hour ripped through Three Rivers, Michigan, and McKenzie, the manager of the local Applebee’s, did not have the luxury of being afraid. She had 50 people in the building. Within a minute and a half of realizing what was coming, she had moved every customer and staff member into the restaurant’s kitchen, the sturdiest section of a brick building she had already been mentally sizing up as a shelter. They stayed for five to seven minutes while the storm moved over. The sounds from inside the kitchen were glass shattering in the dining room, debris hitting the walls, and ears popping from the pressure change. McKenzie described it as exactly what you would imagine standing in the middle of a tornado. When it passed, every single person in that kitchen was fine.
The restaurant itself was badly damaged. Windows blew out, the bar was in disarray, and pieces of the Menards building next door were scattered through the parking lot. McKenzie and her team spent three days cleaning up before they could reopen. She has been called a hero many times since that afternoon and consistently brushes it off. She says she just knew what her position was in that building and what she needed to do, that she tried to remain calm, and that she is glad she had the team she had with her. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado was part of a storm system that produced four tornadoes across Lower Michigan that day, with ten people injured across the broader area. Everyone sheltered in that Applebee’s kitchen walked out without a scratch, including one dog that had come into the building with its owner when the storm hit.
Source: https://people.com/applebees-manager-tornado-shelter-50-people-hailed-as-hero-11936963
