PLANTERSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Kim Atchison was hunkered down in her grandmother’s storm shelter with her 5-year-old grandson Saturday night in their tiny Alabama hometown of Plantersville when her husband and son raced in.

“Get down; get all the way down to the bottom of the cellar,” they told her, saying they could see a twister coming.

Atchison said she remembers first the “dead silence” and then hearing the wind that felt like a funnel and things outside hitting against each other.

“All was quiet after that because it was that fast,” she said. “Like a snap of a finger and it was gone.”

Atchison and her family were among the fortunate ones to avoid being killed in the three-day outbreak of severe weather across eight states that kicked up a combination of wildfires, dust storms and tornadoes — claiming at least 42 lives since Friday and leaving survivors to pick up the pieces.

Two people were killed by a twister in Plantersville. One of the lives lost was that of 82-year-old Annie Free, who “just looked out for everyone,” Atchison’s husband, Darren, said.

The tornado struck Free’s home, leaving only the front patio behind. More than a half-dozen houses were destroyed while others were left in rough shape.