Mom drives through tornado for daughter

DEXTER, Mich. (WXYZ) - It’s been said that when a child is in trouble, there is little that can stop a mother from reaching them.  Sandy Pollard proved that theory on Thursday when she drove through a tornado to reach her teenage daughter.

Pollard was driving home from work Thursday evening when the storm rolled through Dexter.

Her teenage daughter, Amanda, was alone at their home in the 7,000-block of York St. 

Less than a mile away from their house, the storm intensified into a tornado, but Sandy wasn’t giving up. The wiper blades on her SUV were twisted, so Pollard stuck her head out of the window. “I was getting hit by things, and I was hitting things,” Pollard told 7 Action News.

At one point, Pollard said she was blinded by the storm. Unable to see, she briefly stopped, but that’s when the tornado gripped her vehicle turning it 360-degrees.

“That’s when I realized, oh my god, I’m in a tornado,” Pollard said.

Pollard had been using her hands-free Bluetooth headset to stay in touch and check on her daughter. But as her car spun around, the phone line went dead.

“I thought oh my god, I’m too late. She’s dead, she’s crashed,” said Amanda.

Incredibly, Pollard wasn’t dead, she was determined. Despite having her vehicle tossed around, Pollard put her foot on the gas pedal and rushed home. Mother and daughter made it safely to the basement and took cover.

Their home suffered only minimal damage, but directly across the street from their home is a reminder of what Pollard was up against: their neighbor’s home had been flattened by the tornado.