11-year-old victim wanted to be a scientist

ELM CITY -- Danny Hill awoke early Saturday morning to flashing lights so bright he assumed a school bus must have been backing into his driveway.

Peering out his front window, Hill saw severed power lines flashing sparks as they slapped against trees and a black streak 125 feet wide hurtling toward his family's house on London Church Road in Wilson County.

By the time Hill reached a closet, the tornado had passed and his ears were ringing from what sounded like two sticks of dynamite exploding.

Hill, 52, would soon find out that the noise was actually his neighbor's farmhouse across the road being ripped from its foundation, chucked 50 feet and smashed to pieces.

"A lot of bad things were running through my mind," Hill said Sunday afternoon.

His worst fears were soon realized. The lifeless body of 11-year-old Joshua Wiggins was found beneath the boy's outer space-themed blue mattress.

Joshua's grandparents, the only other people in the house, were tossed even further by the tornado, classified as an F3, or severe, tornado. Miraculously, they survived with injuries that were not life-threatening. So did the family's black poodle.

Shirley and Roberta Wiggins emerged from the blackness and driving rain and immediately began begging Hill and others to help them find their grandson.

Joshua, a student at Toisnot Middle School, loved science and outer space, said Aaron Taylor, a family friend.

"He wanted to be a scientist," Taylor said.

On Sunday, most of the television news trucks had left. A procession of cars crawled along London Church Road as motorists took in the tornado's path of destruction.

After assaulting the Wiggins house, the tornado took an abrupt left turn, crossed London Church Road and tore into several other houses and barns. It also churned up a cotton field, making it look as though a couple of feet of fresh snow had fallen.

A white cross had been placed next to Joshua's mattress amidst the remains of the Wiggins home.

Taylor, who is a deacon at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Nashville, said he learned about the tornado touching down on Saturday.

The next morning, after realizing that friends were its victims, he chose to come to the scene instead of going to church.

"Ain't too much you can do here," he said. "Pray. That's all you can do."