America is beginning to recover from the most intense hurricane on record to hit the Florida Panhandle, Hurricane Michael. Across the globe in Australia, they are facing their own weather disasters. One mother near Queensland, Australia used her body as a shield when a supercell tornado generated an enormous hail storm. The storm pelted the car she was driving with her grandmother and daughter with tennis-ball-sized chunks of ice on Thursday.
“I’ve learnt my lesson, never drive in a hail storm,” said Fiona Simpson.
Fiona Simpson described the harrowing scene: A massive bang hit the car as the hail hit the windows. It was so loud that she couldn’t hear her baby crying, but could see her. The storm shattered the rear window, and her baby was exposed to the full effects of the storm.
Simpson managed to climb over the seat to reach her, shielding her inside the car seat with her body. The projectiles throttled her body as she tried to wait it out, but then it got worse. The window on the front passenger side, where her grandmother was seated, blew out, although it was still too loud to hear it. She could tell because of how it felt as more rain and hail suddenly pelted them.
Simpson knew she had to act fast to get her daughter to safety, so she pushed her across to the front seat to her grandmother, got in the driver’s seat, and put the child in the floor of the car near the pedals. It was the only spot that was relatively shielded, although even the windshield was blown out too.
See her discuss what happened below:
Fiona bravely saved her baby, and now she’s been nominated for a bravery award by the Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk. The photos of her badly bruised skin show that it is remarkable she was able to think so quickly to protect her child and to survive herself. All three required hospital treatment following the incident.
