Mother Shares 'Tornado Story' After Chick-fil-A Employees Help Rescue Her and Her Two Boys
Weather forecasts are notoriously spotty when it comes to accuracy — but that’s because they’re predictions, down to percentages of likelihood. Despite their flexibility, they can give us a good idea of generally what to expect for the day, and can warn of us severe impending conditions.
When people from areas familiar with extreme conditions get a warning that a storm is headed their way, they usually know to brace themselves.
On Saturday, one mom from Gainesville, Alabama, saw that at least a storm and possibly a tornado was due later in the day, so she made a last-minute run to Walmart with her two sons.
Since the skies were fairly unthreatening, they decided to grab some food at Chick-fil-A on their way out, but as they ordered their food, the tornado-warned storm came on surprisingly fast.
“I have to share this because it was literally the most scary minutes of my entire 33 years, and also because I have to give credit where credit is due,” Lauren Langley shared on Jan. 11. She detailed how everything seemed pretty normal until she got to making her order at the drive-thru.
“I stopped mid order, rolled my window up and pulled over into a parking spot. By that time, my car was literally shaking side to side, I couldn’t see out the window, there was LOTS of lightning strikes hitting around us, the trees were bending completely in half around us, the boys were SCREAMING, and I for the first time since I became a mother, felt completely clueless and helpless on what to do.”
“I didn’t know what was going to happen next, and I’m still not sure what exactly we experienced, whether it was just severe straight line winds or an actual tornado/wall cloud above us that didn’t touch down.”
“Just then, 2 Chick Fil A employees ran up to my window and told us to get inside. I grabbed both boys and ran as fast as I could inside the building. Running against wind and rain that strong was insanely hard and we looked like we had been swimming when we got inside.”
While no actual tornado was recorded as touching down, that didn’t diminish how terrifying Langley found the conditions.
Once they got inside the building, they were given towels and invited to hide out in the kitchen until the worst of the storm was over. The restaurant even provided Langley and her sons with a meal and ice cream, free of charge.
“I already thought Chick Fil A was the best, but they exceeded the best service today!” she concluded. “I am so thankful that we are safe, and I hope that’s the boys first and last “tornado story” that they have to experience!”
One of the employees who helped them, Ethan Brodgen, told WAFF that he was just doing what any of his coworkers would have done and what he would have wanted someone to do for him.
“She was so scared and wanted to get her kids to safety,” Brodgen said. “If it were just me and my two children and I didn’t necessarily know what was going on, I would hope that somebody would do something like that for me.”
Of course, some commenters on the original post wanted to know why Langley was out when a severe storm was predicted, and one pointed out the irony in “trees bending completely in half” when somehow two Chick-fil-A employees were able to reach her — but the weather can change at a moment’s notice, and perhaps the trees were the small saplings that are often planted around new builds.
Either way, Langley would like to redirect the attention to what was important here: How awesome the Chick-fil-A employees were in an emergency situation.
“I’m glad that Ethan and his fellow employees got such wonderful recognition as that was my purpose for sharing the story,” she wrote in an update on Tuesday.
“I have to add, although I’m not surprised to see a few negative comments such as ‘why were you out with your kids in the storm’ and ‘we’ve only known for a week it was going to be bad weather’, it makes me sad that some people seem to always have to point out the negative in a happy ended situation.”
“I’m guessing these folks don’t know how crazy fast Alabama weather can turn on us and apparently they don’t know what a crazy, protective mom I actually am! Lol.
“In the end, great act of kindness and I hope my message that there are still super awesome people in this world is what everyone takes from this story! Thank you again, to Ethan and all the employees for helping me and my babes!”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
