John Gavin was born, raised and by a miracle still lives in Pasadena. You see John saw his life flash before his very eyes almost three years ago.
He was destined to die on the job in Southeast Baltimore at the Amazon warehouse. But he somehow made it. And tonight for the first time he tells his story of surviving a tornado.
It has been 1,061 nights since the tornado struck a little after 9:30 on Friday night, November 2, 2018.
“I think about it almost everyday, its hard not to,” said John from his dining room table in Pasadena.
John was working as a part time contractor helping a friend out at the Amazon warehouse. He remembers the roof blowing away and the wall giving way. His boss, Andrew Lindsey yelled, “RUN”.
At 54, Andrew came to Baltimore with his dog Buddy from Oklahoma. He told John he had seen plenty of tornadoes in his time but never was in one. Incredibly this night in Baltimore this tornado took his life.
John managed to use 32 years of safety training at CSX to know how to find shelter when danger was near.
“I prayed, I prayed to God that the sorter part of this building would survive, if not I’m gone,” John said.
But it was Andrew who was buried.
They found his body only for his body to fail on the way to the hospital. John does admit he has survivors guilt.
He admits he’ll cope with it, but will never get over what happened this night in November.
And guess who has Andrews dog? John and his wife Tina.
“My friends say God kept me around because he has a plan."
