Survivor Shares Heartbreaking, Terrifying Account of the Moment Tornado Tore Through Candle Factory: ‘I Thought I Was Going to Die’

Andrea Miranda, a worker at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, joined MSNBC to share the heartbreaking and terrifying account of the moment the tornado tore through the building.

Introducing Miranda, MSNBC’s José Díaz-Balart noted that the tornado had caused the factory she was working at to completely collapse, trapping her under rubble for two hours.

Miranda filmed a Facebook live stream that night, showing her trapped inside the building as the twister continued to devastate her community.

“This is actually a really a bad experience I’ve never lived before,” she said on Monday. “What I remember is when the building moved left, right, and boom. That’s what I heard. And I had some co-workers next to me —  it was my friend, Kyanna, and my supervisor, that I hug her and the whole entire wall fell on top of us, maked us unable to move. I was stuck there for two hours, not able to breathe. I thought I was going to die.”

“It was horrible, horrible, yelling, help, help, help, help,” she added, repeatedly calling the moment “horrible.”

She revealed that she has not been able to sleep since the tornado hit, noting that the tragedy left her without a car and without a job.

“The only thing I really have been working for is for my car and my house. It was the only thing I have,” she said through tears after Díaz-Balart asked how he and others could help her.

Miranda went on to explain that she had moved to Kentucky from Puerto Rico and had been working at the candle factory for two years, adding, “and now everything is gone.

“Everything is gone. My car so I can get another job, move to another place. No place to stay. Everything is gone,” she said while crying. “My family is in Puerto Rico and I came here at 19 years, I’m 21, and I have been working so hard, and now everything is gone. I don’t know — I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”

Díaz-Balart responded with words of affirmation, showing immense support for her amid the tragedy and speaking to her in both Spanish and English.

“La gente de Puerto Rico extraordinaria,” he said, calling Puerto Rican people extraordinary. “You are an amazing person and where there is life, there is hope. And know that there are a lot of people that are looking to help you and others.”

Díaz-Balart went on to note how large the Latino community is in Kentucky and how they have been impacted by the tornado, asking Miranda if she has any close friends she can turn to for support.

“No — the only friends they had, they just tell me that she die in the candle factory. Her name was Janine,” she said. “And all the people that I rely on, they’re basically dead or they lost everything too. My family is in Puerto Rico. I’m not able to leave the state. And like I said, I don’t see myself holding up no more longer, because everything that I had worked these two years is gone, it’s gone. I don’t got no way to support myself right now, honestly.”

“Andrea, don’t lose hope,” he said, repeating himself in Spanish. “You have to keep going.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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