For the first time in his life, Darrin Crockett is glad God did not answer his prayer.
On Monday night, March 2, Crockett and his family went to bed as always. Their dog Doc, however, barked incessantly throughout the night. Crockett remembers asking God “to make that dog quit barking.”
God apparently chose not to answer that prayer. As a result, the Crockett family is alive and well after an estimated EF-4 tornado blasted through their home in Cookeville, Tennessee, leaving them trapped under a pile of rubble.
Reflecting on that night, Crockett sees how God orchestrated their survival. Had Doc not barked most of the night, Crockett may not have heard his phone alarm signaling a storm warning. As a result of the warning, he, his wife Jenny and daughters Carly, Camryn and Carrigan took refuge in the laundry room, the only place Crockett said they could have survived.
A two-by-four that fell across an overturned washer and dryer likely provided enough room to keep them from being crushed. When the storm passed, lighting flashes exposed what few openings there were, and the family crawled out from the collapsed building with only a few minor cuts and scratches.
Crockett is the associate pastor of VineBranch Community Church and a school administrator and athletic director at Highland Rim Academy, both in Cookeville, He said their survival was a miracle.
“It is amazing,” he said. “If our dog had not alerted us, who knows where we would have ended up?”