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Death toll rises across Southeast after storms

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) – Officials confirm at least 14 people are dead across three states after this week’s storms. Many others are counting themselves lucky for having avoided the same fate.

This tiny building may have been what saved Tony Goodwin’s life, when the tornado hit Perry County, Tennessee, southwest of Nashville.

“When I saw it, I was like, ‘Oh, crap. We’re in trouble,” he said.

The tornado knocked his house off it’s foundation, but he and six other people survived by dashing into his storm shelter.

“I had my grandson in my arm, under my arm. everybody got in except for my sister-in-law, and I’m yelling at her, ‘come on.” The second she got inside, he says he shut the door and put down the bar.

Not far from his home, Ann and Antonio Yzaguirre had no such shelter. The couple who had just celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary died in the storm. They are two among more than a dozen people in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas killed by this week’s storms.