FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – A devastating storm turns a family’s brand-new home into a nightmare just days after they moved in.

The March 14 tornadoes were so powerful that it tore off the Watsons’ family home front door’s hinges and lifted the roof off their home. 

Now, the storm has left them with nothing but heartbreak and debris.

Just days after moving into his new home with his family, on March 14, Officer Watson and his three children were in their new house when he got an alert about severe weather heading straight toward them. 

Moments later, he heard a deafening roar and rushed his kids to the basement. One of his daughters called her grandmother, telling her she loved her, thinking it would be their final goodbye.

“It took her bed from the wall and blew it completely over to the other wall. So she probably would’ve died. Same with the living room,” Watson explained.

As the tornado ripped through, the roof lifted off the house. Gary barely hung onto the front door.

“As I’m trying to close the door, the whole front of the house rips off and kind of pulls me out. I’m hanging onto the door, and it went by really fast. Luckily, the door saved me,” Watson said.

Meanwhile, his fiancée, Kelly, was frantically trying to drive home but found all highways blocked by debris and downed power lines. Desperate, she ran through the woods to reach her family.

“I had that mindset that night—I’m either going to die on my way there, or I’m going to come home, and they’re not going to be there. Eventually, I just parked and took off running,” she said.

Thankfully, firefighters arrived and helped guide the family to safety. Gary says his only priority was keeping his children alive.

“They’re so young; I was just trying to keep them alive. That’s all I could think about,” Kelly said.

The next day, the family returned to find their home destroyed—walls ripped apart, the roof collapsed and their boat carried four miles away. 

Amazingly, it was left undamaged.

The Watsons are staying with relatives, but they urgently need help to rebuild. 

A GoFundme was created for the family. If you’d like to donate, click here.