With black skies cascading to the ground and a tornado threatening to suck the life out of her, Sharon Watson did the only thing she could do — she stretched out on her bedroom floor with her Chihuahua, Spook, pressed against her back as shattered glass hissed through the air like shrapnel.

“I laid down on the floor next to the bed and didn’t know if I would live,” she said. “I felt glass hitting me. It was like knives being thrown at me.”