The girlfriend of one of the victims killed after a tornado collapsed an Amazon warehouse in Illinois has reportedly claimed that her boyfriend was told by the company to stay there and not go home until the storm passed.
Former army veteran, Larry Virden was one of six people killed on Friday night after a tornado ripped off a major portion of an Amazon facility in Illinois.
Cherie Jones, Virden’s girlfriend of 13 years, said in an interview that her Larry’s last text to her was almost 16 minutes before the tornado hit the facility.
“I got text messages from him. He always tells me when he is filling up the Amazon truck when he is getting ready to go back… I was like ‘ OK, I love you.’ He’s like, ‘well Amazon won’t let me leave until after the storm blows over’,” Jones recalled.
She said Virden had “20 minutes to get home” because the tornado did not touch down until 8.39pm that night. She added that the couple lived in Collinsville, which was about 13 minutes away from the warehouse.
“I messaged him and that was the last text message I got from him,” she exclaimed. “I told him [that] where we live, it was only lightning at the time. After that, I got nothing from him.”
Virden had been working with Amazon for the last five months after serving in Iraq. Jones said her boyfriend had a missile blow up in front of him in Iraq, just 200 yards away, but was lucky to escape unhurt.
“When he was over there, he made his peace with the maker so he was prepared to die. But we didn’t want him to die now,” she said.
When asked if she thought Amazon was responsible for Virden’s death, Jones said: “Not really. But it’s that what-if situation: what if they would have let him leave? He could have made it home,” she said.
“We’re deeply saddened by the news that members of our Amazon family passed away as a result of the storm in Edwardsville, IL,” Amazon said in a statement over the warehouse deaths.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by the tornado. We also want to thank all the first responders for their ongoing efforts on scene. We’re continuing to provide support to our employees and partners in the area,” it said.
Sources: MSN, The World News
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