Tennessee mom praises God after baby boy swept up by tornado is found alive in tree

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, December 18, 2023

Sydney Moore, 22, of Clarksville, Tenn., recalls how a tornado swept through her home on Dec. 9, 2023. | YouTube/ KHOU 11

A young Tennessee mother who nearly lost her two children as a massive tornado swept her family out of their home earlier this month is thanking God for keeping her 4-month-old son alive. He was found in a tree after the tornado separated him from the family.

“It had to have been God,” 22-year-old Sydney Moore told WZTV about finding her second-born son, Lord, alive in a tree after a tornado with 150-mile-per-hour winds snatched him from her and his father, Aramis Youngblood, in their Clarksville home.

“He [Aramis] found him laying in a tree, like somebody placed him in this tree. All he [Lord] had was a gash on the side of his face,” Moore said.

The young mom said she and the father of her children were lounging with Lord and his 1-year-old brother, Princeton, in the living room of their mobile home on Dec. 9 when the E-3 tornado bore down on them without warning.

“My boyfriend said, ‘It sounds like an airplane,’” Moore said.

Before they heard the town’s tornado alarms going off, the walls of their mobile home began to shake, and Moore and her family were “already in the air.”

Princeton was closest to Moore, so she said she reached for him while her baby’s father tried desperately to grab Lord, who was in his bassinet, but failed.

“He tried to grab him, but he couldn’t, and the tip of the tornado sucked them both up,” Moore recalled, noting how her youngest child and his father were ripped from the home. She said Moore held Princeton tightly after being trapped under a collapsed wall.

“Princeton was on my chest, and whatever it was that was crushing me,” Moore said.

She eventually freed herself after the tornado passed, and she found the father of her children with a broken collarbone, but they couldn’t find their infant baby.

“We were screaming for each other,” Moore said. “I just remember asking, ‘Where’s my baby!’ And my child’s father said he didn’t know.”

In what the family is now calling a miracle, they eventually found Lord in the tree not far from the wreckage of their home and belongings.

In a GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $100,000 to help the family, Moore’s sister, Caitlyn Moore, said the family, which lost everything, including their car, is being housed temporarily at a hotel for one month by their rental company.

“They did not have insurance on their car, so unfortunately, that is a total loss. The tornado took all of the formula, diapers, wipes, clothing, etc.,” Caitlyn Moore explained.

“She [Sydney] lost all of her and the children’s belongings. Luckily, everyone came out with minor cuts and bruises. … Lord had to have his ear glued from a gash on his ear and had a minor concussion. We are told that he looked like he was placed on the tree gently,” she said. “Like an angel guided him safely to that spot.

“This disaster has affected more than just this family,” she added. “So I would like to extend my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected.”