Aubrey McKenzie (inset), a manager at Applebee’s in Three Rivers, Mich., has been afraid of storms since she was a child. That, however, didn’t stop her from ushering her staff and guests to safety as a tornado was barreling toward the restaurant. McKenzie said it was an ordinary beautiful day, when the tornado warning went off. At the time, she was leaving for a neighboring Applebee’s when she heard everybody’s phones going off with tornado warnings. Conditions were changing by the second, and before long she could see the funnel cloud outside. Admittedly panicked, McKenzie reminded herself that she had to stay calm, and her response was quick and orderly. She led all the guests and staff into the prep kitchen where there are no windows. It was a tight squeeze, but it was their best chance of shelter. After everyone was inside, she peeked her head out one last time and saw that a man and his dog were sitting in a pickup truck outside the restaurant, as well as a boy on his phone, who seemed like he was waiting for someone. She told the man and the boy to come inside immediately. Not long after, the tornado hit. “Your ears were popping, but then you could also hear the glass shattering from the dining room. It’s exactly how you would imagine it would be standing in the middle of a tornado. Shattering, like things hitting everything. It sounded like a freight train,” said McKenzie. The brick-built Applebee’s held up, even though it took 4 days to clean up the restaurant, with glass from the broken windows and spirit bottles finding its way into every conceivable nook and cranny. New vacuums had to be bought, new carpets too, but not one single person was hurt. “I was surprised that I was able to get everybody, and be that organized in that short amount of time,” she admitted. “I’ve been called hero a lot lately and I laugh it off, but I guess I did what I felt I had to do.”
