As the thunder roared outside and the lights inside Chuck’s Dairy Bar began to blink, owner Tracy Harden realized the tornado conditions forecasted for her small Mississippi town Friday night were far more severe than she realized.
“Cooler!” yelled out Harden, and she, her husband and their employees scrambled into a giant gray metal box — normally used to keep the restaurant’s food refrigerated, but which that night saved nine lives in the shattered small town of Rolling Fork.