Men Trapped Inside Collapsed Gas Station Survive EF-2 Tornado

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COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - Hoping to avoid the storm on his trip back from Oklahoma Saturday night, Trey McCann of Dallas decided to take the back roads home through eastern rural Collin County.

He was driving south on Highway 78 in Copeville when he spotted an EF-2 tornado heading his way.

McCann did a u-turn and turned into a Willard's gas station.

The doors were locked, so McCann frantically banged on the door until the owner came to let him in.

The two men then headed to the freezer in the back of the store to take shelter but before they made it, the tornado hit and the building collapsed on top of them.

"It was just like boom – like it blew up," McCann described.

Trapped underneath the rubble, after several minutes McCann managed to crawl out.

"I can't believe I made it out," he said. "My first thought was, 'Wow, I'm alive.' My head was bleeding and I could see cuts. Neither one of us know how we made it out"

But what McCann said he does know is had the gas station owner not let him in that night, he might not be alive.

On Monday McCann made a special trip back out to the Copeville gas station to shake the hand of the owner and to tell him thanks.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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