DALLAS — Brittaney Deaton was inside her recreational vehicle in Burleson when she felt it rocking.
Deaton, 17, had been living in the RV that was parked outside her parents’ home — about 20 miles south of Forth Worth — when severe weather swept through North Texas on Monday. Strong winds pushed the RV’s wooden stairs in front of the entrance.
“I felt like I was just trapped,” she said, “like it was going to roll with me in it.”
Her father, Shawn Zeleny, 43, ran out to help her, breaking the stairs by hand to get her out.
But as the pair tried to run into her parents’ house, Deaton said she felt something large roll on top of her.
“All I felt was something big roll on top on me,” Deaton said. “It felt kind of like if you were stuck between two walls.”
Deaton made it to her parents’ house after the RV had rolled over them.
“I had only taken four steps out of the RV when my dad starting yelling to call 911,” she told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. “The trailer had started rolling over and didn’t stop until it reached the other side of the yard.
“I would have been crushed if he didn’t get the stairs out of the way. I would have died in there alone.”
‘It happened so fast’
Amber Zeleny, her mother, said she saw the chaotic scene unfold from the front door of the house. Neighbor’s helped Deaton’s father, and he was later taken to a hospital for his injuries.
Shawn Zeleny was still at the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon. He broke a few ribs, his nose and injured his hips, his wife said.
The RV, which had been in the far left corner of her parent’s front yard, rolled to the opposite side, mere feet away from the gravel road laced with downed power lines in at least three different spots.
All around Deaton were fragments of the independence she had worked so hard to achieve. An entire wall of the RV she renovated herself was hanging from the body of the vehicle. Clothes, shoes and dishes were sprawled out across the grass.
“I feel like it is my fault because he was coming out to save me,” Deaton said. “Deep down, I know I’m the reason he’s hurt, and I keep breaking down because I’d never want anything to happen to him, let alone because of me.”
Amber Zeleny said she wishes she would have had her daughter go inside the house, but “it happened so fast.”
Lucky to be alive
Jamie Moore, Johnson County emergency management coordinator, has told The News that Shawn Zeleny was the only person reported injured.
Weather service radars detected a possible tornado over Johnson County about 11 p.m. Monday night that likely touched down near Alvarado and continued east toward downtown Midlothian in Ellis County, KXAS-TV reported.
About half a dozen homes were damaged in the storm, Moore said. Some roads were also closed Tuesday morning because of fallen trees, he said.
Deaton said she’ll move back in with her parents as she works to afford a new RV since the main house was unharmed except for a broken window.
“I can still feel the adrenaline rushing through me,” she said, “but I already know how lucky I am to be alive.
“Last night could have ended much differently. Things can be replaced — my dad cannot.”
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(Dallas Morning News staff writers Maggie Prosser and Elias Valverde II contributed to this report.
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