“Something told me to go outside,” said Curt Hickson, a visitor at Eagle Lake who became a hero to two little boys when a tornado ripped through Sea Island Drive Saturday morning.

“I looked at the oak tree over there (by the lake), and all of a sudden, everything was blowing,” said Hickson, who lives in Gautier on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. “You couldn’t see anything. There was a roar like nothing you can imagine. I didn’t see a funnel, it was just wind.”

Hickson, who has been in the path of a major storm before, had been staying with his niece, Cassidy Gurley and her husband, Kenneth, and their family at their Eagle Lake home on Sea Island, where the path of the tornado destroyed most of the houses on the mile-long strip.

“We were all inside,” Cassidy Gurley said. “I was asleep on the couch and my children were playing their PlayStation. Uncle Curt came in and told us about the storm. We all gathered in the living room where there are no windows. He saved us. He was our hero.”

“I had just enough time to get inside and get those boys on the floor,” said Hickson, who had grabbed the boys and covered them with his body.

About an hour later, the boys, Reed Gurley and Tucker Austin Gurley, both younger than 5, were playing in their yard amid all the rubble and debris under cloudy, then sunny skies.

Like most of the homes on the lakefront stretch, the Gurleys’ home was severely damaged; the entire back wall was broken off.

“We have nothing,” Cassidy Gurley said. “Both of our cars are also destroyed.”

Cassidy Gurley’s father, who also lives on Sea Island Drive, was one of two people reported injured during the storm.

Grant, who said only, “I’m fine,” was in his truck, headed home, during the height of the storm.

His wife, Sandy, said her husband had put his head down on the passenger seat in an attempt at shelter.

A tree fell on his truck while he was inside, and his right hand suffered a gash. He was treated by emergency medical personnel at the scene.

The Gurleys and Hickson had plans to stay overnight with family members in the Eagle Lake area.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com