Woman in Labor Amid Tornado in Oklahoma City Names Son Immanuel

 Oklahoma mom Shayla Taylor tells how she survived a powerful tornado while in labor on Monday, May 20, 2013, at the Moore Medical Center. Her husband and 4-year-old son look on as Taylor holds her newborn son, Braeden Immanuel Taylor. Read more...

A pregnant woman and the nurses with her held hands and prayed in preparation for the worst as a powerful tornado bore down on Moore Medical Center in Oklahoma on Monday. Seconds later, the young woman, already experiencing contractions, opened her eyes and saw the highway — the tornado had demolished walls, torn off the roof and shredded the top floor of the medical center.

Shayla Taylor, 25 and married with a 4-year-old son. "The floor was shaking like an earthquake and then I saw the ceiling shaking too. You could see insulation starting to fall. Me and two of the nurses were all just holding hands and praying. My eyes were closed, but you could kind of see daylight. And I opened my eyes and I could see out the wall."
 

The powerful tornado, which hit speeds of 200 mph, has been blamed for the loss of at least 24 lives, 10 of them children. The EF-5 level twister demolished thouands of homes, two elementary schools and the Moore Medical Center where Taylor's day had begun at around 9 a.m. Despite the destruction to the building, no one at the medical center, numbered at 25-30 persons at the time, suffered any injuries related to the storm.
Taylor credits God for their survival, including that of her newborn son, who reportedly entered the world at 7:25 p.m. at a different hospital (the tornado had touched down around 3:30 p.m.).
"His middle name means 'God is with us. Congratulations.
 Source: NBC News