How Meso Customs helped save a life (Feel good story)

It's been one heck of a week here in Nashville, Tennessee. For those that don't know, on Tuesday we had a EF-3 tornado rip through the city and head off to the west. The tornado was on the ground for over 50 miles, carving a path of destruction through residential area after residential area. The death toll is currently sitting at 25. Here's one of the stories (there are many throughout the state) that stopped that number from climbing.

We're used to getting bad weather here. So while the storm woke me up around midnight, I didn't think anything of it and just rolled over and went back to sleep. So when my phone started ringing at 1am, I was very confused when I answered why a friend in California immediately started asking if I was ok before I could even get a groggy "hello?" out of my mouth.

I live to the southwest of the city and it took my a minute or so to even process what I was being told. Now awake, I started checking online to see what was going on. As soon as I started reading over the news stories, my heart dropped out of my chest.

For those that have never had to live through a natural disaster, there is a moment where you just feel powerless. That destruction has been reigned down on your city and neighbors and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Details were still trickling in at this point and I was operating on autopilot. I got dressed, threw my boots on, jumped in the truck and took off headed for the city. Calling friends and family along the drive to check on them.

My office was 2 blocks south from the path of destruction that had ripped through my city. Once I got there and established that I did in fact have an office still, I started pushing further in trying to see where I could help. There was this sicking silence hanging in the air broken up by sirens of first responders overwhelmed and just trying to figure out where to go first. Many roads I came to were impassable by homes, power lines, businesses and people's entire lives blocking the road.

Suddenly, a man ran out of the dark towards me as I was trying to figure out a way to proceed down roads that I had just driven the day before on my way to lunch. "Hey! Help! I think my neighbor is trapped!"

I locked the brakes up and had one foot out of the door before it was even in park. I followed him as he took me to a pile of rubble that I couldn't have even told you had been part of a house earlier that evening. The man that had flagged me down (I would later have time for introductions and would learn his name was Alex) started trying to dig through rubble in the dark. All the power in the area was gone and he was doing his best to dig and shine a dinky flashlight into the area at the same time. I ran back to the truck, turned it to where I could kick on my high beams and spotlight (credit to SpartanXCustoms on IG), grabbed a pry bar out of the back and ran back over.

Alex and I were able to peel off layers of wood and memories until we uncovered a corner of what used to be a bathroom. Inside this hole we started being able to make out a person and the worst possible thing you can think of to see, bright red blood on skin. Ragged breathing was coming from the hole as we did everything we could to try and reassure them that we were right there. We weren't going anywhere and we were going to get them out. Finally we were able to clear enough of a hole to be able to assist this small slender framed girl in her 20's from the wreckage. She was doing her best to climb out, but her injuries and shock were preventing her from doing it on her own.

Alex and I were eventually able to get her free and we rushed her back over to the truck. Alex had lost his phone in the chaos of the evening, so I called in to the 911 dispatchers while grabbing a blanket from the back seat. We laid her out and I kept Alex talking to her while I did my best to give directions to where we needed an ambulance and trying to assess her injuries. (@MESO's Ultimate 3rd Brake light with @Baja Designs rock lights were so bright it was like I was in an operating room in the bed of my truck) We could hear the sirens trying to get to where we were but they were having the same navigation troubles that I had been having trying to find passable streets in.

This dispatcher was trying to talk to me to try and get help navigating to us and then relaying them to the rig coming to our rescue. We saw headlights start to drive past the end of the street and then stop quickly and whip our direction. The ambulance crew were professionals and worked quickly. Getting the girl (I never did get her name) out of the bed of my truck, onto a stretcher, loaded up and were gone in the blink of an eye.

Alex and I sat there on the tailgate for a bit, catching our breath and mentally processing everything as best we could. Enough time had passed and more and more first responders were starting to get into the area at this point. I knew that I was soon just going to be in the way so I started packing back up to head back over to my office and see what else I could do from there. As Alex and I were getting ready to part ways, he mentioned something I hadn't even thought of.

"Man, I'm glad you've got those emergency flashers. I was actually headed the opposite way to try and go find help. But those things are so bright in the pitch black out here, it was like a beacon shining between all the houses and everything telling me where you were going so I could get to you."

Turning around to take a look at my truck and really take the scene in surrounded by pitch black, between Meso's Ultimate Turn Signals and his Total Tail Lights Stage 2, everywhere around my truck was a flashing amber beacon in the night. And for Alex, it had been a flashing beacon of hope right when he needed it most.

Like I said, it's been a busy week. And there is a lot more work to do. But while I sit here taking a breather, I wanted to make sure I took the time to let Meso and the rest of his shop know that when it really counted, their products were literally a life saver. Keep up the good work, Guys.

 

Awesome story.

I hated those nighttime tornados when I lived in Northern Alabama.

 

As a fellow Nashvillian, also very lucky to have been well south of the path of destruction, it has been a crazy unforgettable week in many ways. I have friends who lost everything except their lives, though very thankfully all of our friends and family are accounted for even if several have lost their homes, vehicles, and personal belongings.

Seeing first-hand, all of the destruction in the path of this disaster simply takes your breath away. But, equally is the culture in our city - we respond to crisis in a way that brings the entire community closer together to get on with the business of cleaning up, rebuilding, and healing.

We're trying to do out part every day in helping with clean-up and supplies, but you did an incredible thing when it was needed most.

...and now, seems I need to up my lighting game and get more Meso in my life!

 

Awesome story... thanks for sharing. And GREAT job by you and Alex saving that girl's life. I'm sure you two will never be forgotten by her. God willing, she will tell her children and grandchildren about y'alls heroics.

 

Great story man! In the right place at the right time to save a life, how cool is that!

 

Thank you for sharing such a great story.

 

Thank you for sharing your story! I'm happy to hear our rock light was able to be of good use in a situation like this.

 

LOL. What no credit to Thomas Edison, Nick Holonyak gotta give a shout out to Toyota for making a platform to mount those lights.

 

Thank you