Dad, Pregnant Mother, and Two Year-Old Survive Flipped Mobile Home In Storm: Benefit Event This Friday

The mobile home of Jake, Madison, and Annie Wingfield sits upside-down after storms blew it over with the family inside on June 25, 2023.

Darren Doyle, story: photos submitted
A young couple and their two year-old daughter are blessed to be alive after surviving an incredible encounter during severe storms that recently came through Edmonson County.

Jake and Madison Wingfield, along with their two year-old daughter, Annie, were inside their mobile home in Big Reedy when straight line winds flipped their mobile home over, not only once, but twice. They were all inside as the events unfolded, and Madison is currently 36 weeks pregnant.

"The Lord was very good to us," Madison told the Edmonson Voice as she began to describe the horrific situation she and her family found themselves in on the night of Sunday, June 25th.

"We lost power around 9 or 9:30 and we were staying up in our living room with Annie at about 11:15," she said. "I just felt like something was off and I didn't want to put her in her bed. We hadn't gotten any weather alerts yet and it didn't seem like it was too bad outside yet but I don't know if you call it mother's intuition or what, but things just didn't seem right. Jake and Annie were on the couch and I got up to go look out the window to see if I could see anything happening and all at once, the trailer started tipping forward and the floor was up in the air."

"I guess it was good that Jake and Annie were laying on the couch where they were because the couch slid across the room into another couch, and it landed on top of them and covered them both when it flipped," she said. "As soon as we quit flipping I jumped up and started hollering for them and Jake was hollering for me but it was dark and we couldn't see anything. It was raining inside on us because all the windows were busted out and we were walking on the ceiling, which it was hard to move around because we were falling through the insulation. I finally got to him and he had pushed the other couch off them both and then the main goal was just to get out. We went out the front door which was now facing the back of our place, got in our vehicle, and made it to my parents' house."

Other than a few items of clothing, everything in the house was lost, whether being blown away, smashed, or damaged from water, but the Wingfields didn't yet fully know the severity of their situation. They also hadn't yet realized that being together in their living room before the tumble possibly saved all their lives.

"When we saw everything the next morning, we were amazed that we got out," she said. "We didn't have a lot of room in the trailer to begin with, so we actually had our deep freezer in Annie's room. That freezer ended up on top of Annie's crib and if we'd have put her there I don't see how we could've got her out. Also, in our bedroom, Jake had built our bed, which was made out of rough lumber and it was super heavy. It was laying out flat and I don't see how we could've got out from underneath it, the way it was laying. Just where we were before the storm hit was a blessing in itself, because if we'd have been in any other part of the house, I don't know that we'd have made it out."

To say that the family is in need is an understatement. They are currently living in a camper, they had no mobile home insurance, and baby number two could literally arrive any day. Friends, family, and even strangers have already stepped up to help take care of their immediate needs, including organizing a huge benefit event that is scheduled for this Friday, July 14th at the Brownsville Community Center.

"We've just been overwhelmed by the kindness that's been shown to us throughout all this," she said. "I can't imagine living somewhere else right now because our community has just wrapped us up. You just don't think about not having some of this stuff until you don't have it. We're just trying to get by with the bare minimum in our camper for now, and make room for our baby."

Despite their lives literally being turned upside down in a matter of 30 seconds, Madison said that Annie didn't have a single scratch from the ordeal and she and Jake escaped with only cuts and bruises.

"People have reached out to us from everywhere," she said. "We've gotten care packages from all around, it seems. We just got one from Pennsylvania. Yes, it was bad, but we're just so thankful that it wasn't worse. We're just trying to stay optimistic."

The benefit event is scheduled to start at 6:30PM on Friday and will feature gospel singing, a bbq dinner, both a silent and live auction, and more. You can visit the Facebook event page by clicking here, you can email the benefit event at [email protected], or call the numbers on the flyers for more info.