A GREAT-grandmother who survived the Alabama tornado storms is in shock after learning that two family members are dead and a third is fighting for her life in hospital.

Eileen Gray, 83, formerly of Boscombe, thought all her relatives were safe but was then given the terrible news that her niece Angie Sanders and husband Albert had died.

The couple’s 10-year-old daughter Sienna is seriously ill and their two other daughters, Celia, eight, and Janet, 12, were also injured but hope to leave hospital soon.

The horror happened just eight miles from Eileen’s own home in Gadsden.

Fighting back tears, Eileen told the Echo: “I was feeling so much better and thankful that we were all saved and then I find out about Angie and Albert. He died within minutes of being found. It was such a shock.

“I didn’t find out until Sunday morning. One of the little girls looked out of the window and said that the tornado was coming. They all ran into the bathroom.

"Two of the little girls were clinging to each other and when they opened their eyes they were sitting on a pile of lumber still clutching each other.

“There is nothing left of the house not even the floor.”

Ohatchee, where Eileen lived as a young bride has been “wiped out”, she added.

Eileen added that residents’ spirits have been lifted by various heartwarming and absurd stories that have emerged since Thursday’s horror.

A puppy was pulled alive from a wrecked home and renamed Twister while one family returned to their home to find a dead cow upstairs.

And a seven-week old baby miraculously survived and was reunited with his daddy, said Eileen.

She added: “I didn’t understand when I first came to this country why people were so afraid of storms. I thought, ‘it is just a little bit of thunder and lightning’. I soon learned that it is something to be afraid of.”