Beyond The Destruction: How A Bathtub Became An Ark

The Kriesel family still keeps the bathtub, dubbed the Ark, in their backyard of their Moore home. A decade later, the memory of what happened in that tub remains as miraculous as it did May 20, 2013.

“I just said it was God's hand holding us down. Because everything around us blew away and we were pushed down,” recalls Amber Kriesel.

Amber Kriesel was home with her three daughters, 6-year-old Kaley and four-year-old twins Sophie and Zoe.

“I think we were hearing it was probably around three-ish or just after three. And it was like they were saying there was a tornado emergency,” Amber said. “I'd never heard that before myself. So that really got my attention.”

So, she gathered all three girls and put them in the bathtub. Kaley still remembers parts of that day.

“I remember being in the bathtub on a quilt. Just playing on my leapfrog,” Kaley said.

As the tornado neared, Amber’s husband Nathan left work early and was rushing home.

“And I get to the door and it's locked,” he remembered. “So, my thought is, you know, I'm outside. Tornadoes coming. What do I do?”

“So, I went to the bathroom and put the mattress over us and got that, you know, we were all in position already,” said Amber. “And then the doorbell rings.”

“Fortunately, she opened the door,” said Nathan. “It's it seemed like a long time. It may have been a minute, I don't know,”

“So, then we all got into position again, you know,” said Amber. “We were singing, and I think he (Nathan) had shared the story about, you know, the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace and that the Lord was with them and that that's kind of what we were going to be doing and that the Lord was with us and we would just trust him for whatever was going to happen.”

“As the storm was approaching, we could hear the hail, you know, we could hear the wind,” Added Nathan. “And it was pitch black, and then pitch black in our room. We could hear things hitting the house is starting to things cracking, breaking it was it was getting louder and louder and louder and Amber said, uh, my wife, said that the storm is here.”

“It got really loud,” said Amber. “We had them lock arms. We told them to stay really low, to not let go of their sister.”

“We could hear things starting to rip apart, you know,” said Nathan. “It just kept getting louder and louder and we're down. We're praying. We're calling on the Lord, ‘Lord Jesus’, and then all of a sudden It went from dark to light. I mean in a split second.”

“So without looking at anything, you just could tell like it's like that means there's no walls,” adds Amber.

“The intense wind was coming and so we're screaming, you know, ‘Lord, lift it, Lord, lift it.’ I can't hear her. She can't hear me. We're right next to each other. But it's so deafening,” said Nathan.

“And you could just hear things breaking, you know, glass, you know, things crashing, breaking it just it just sounded otherworldly, you know, like something,” said Amber.

“It felt like we were moving even though we didn't move at all,” added Kaley.

“I tried to open my eyes but that was pointless because you know just the intensity of it,” said Nathan.

“So in my mind, I was just like, we just have to stay together. You know, it just if we hold on, you know, a little bit longer, little bit tighter you know and as long as we're all here you know it's going to leave,” said Nathan.  

“As tornadoes come and go, finally it went,” said Nathan.  

And all five of them were fine.

“And I remember Nathan stood up and got out on the other side of the tub, and it was crazy because there used to be a wall there,” said Amber.

The pictures Nathan shot immediately after are proof of the unbelievable.

A church group would later label that bathtub the Ark. Family pictures and that bathtub hang proudly in the Krisel’s new home. A constant reminder that even through the worst storm they never let go of each other. Or their faith.

“I feel like that was the day when I really 100% knew that God was real,” Kaley said.