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The Wire actor Tray Chaney has shared an emotional update on his 19-year-old son Malachi, who was critically injured after being thrown nearly 300 feet by a tornado that destroyed their home in Georgia last week.
The tornado, which hit Locust Grove near Atlanta on May 29, left a trail of devastation.
Chaney – best known for playing Poot on the HBO drama – was asleep when the EF-2 storm tore through his neighborhood.
He described hearing a sound ‘like a train was coming’ before his entire room was ripped apart.
‘I just remember turning to my right and my walls, and my TVs and my dressers and my bed turned upside down and I levitated in the air,’ Chaney said in a new interview with TMZ. ‘I just remember covering [my face with my arms], yelling my son’s name out.’
Chaney was knocked unconscious as the house collapsed around him. When he awoke, he was buried in debris and lying in the mud, unsure where his son had been carried.
Neighbours helped pull him from the wreckage, but Malachi was nowhere to be seen.
Eventually, Malachi was discovered in nearby woods, having been hurled by the tornado’s vortex.
Despite being flung the length of a football field, he survived. But the injuries were severe: every bone in his face fractured, broken ribs, and cuts covering his upper body. Remarkably, his legs were largely unharmed.
After six days in intensive care, Chaney confirmed Malachi is now in stable condition and has been moved to a less critical unit.
‘But it’s going to be a long journey and a long road to recovery. We’re not out of the hospital,’ he said.
The tornado struck just days before Malachi’s birthday on June 1. Though the celebration was subdued, Chaney managed to surprise his son with a special video message from NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who wished him a happy birthday.
‘The tough part is watching him be stable and respond the best way he can,’ Chaney said. ‘And every single day, he doesn’t know what happened.’
Chaney’s wife, Ayesha, had not been home during the storm but returned soon after. The family has since been staying with friends and in temporary housing.
‘We went to war with a tornado and came out on top,’ Chaney said. ‘Everybody in that house could have been killed.’
He continued: ‘I don’t know what’s … coming, and I’m not trying to figure it out.’
The family has launched a GoFundMe to help rebuild. At time of writing, the fund has raised $99,370 (£77,500).
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