'How in the world am I alive?' | Valley View tornado survivor speaks from hospital bed as her fiancé undergoes spinal reconstruction

VALLEY VIEW, Texas — Saturday afternoon a young Texas couple posed for engagement photos.

Five hours later, a tornado ripped through Valley View and almost killed them.

"I’ve got head injuries…and I got body injuries," Elizabeth Gilbert told WFAA over Zoom from her hospital bed. 

She and her fiancée Zach Moore lived in his mother's Valley View home and hunkered down in the closet as the tornado got closer.

"I remember I was with my fiancé…" Gilbert said. "I went to go give him a hug and I remember the whole roof tilting."

Gilbert told WFAA she does not remember anything after that. But first responders found her and Zach moaning, unconscious, across the street on a pile of rubble. Their home lifted off the ground and flew into a neighbor’s yard with them in it.

"I felt like before we got hit…if we actually got hit, I probably wouldn’t live" she said, "I’m awake and here and then I think about it like, how in the world am I alive?" 

Gilbert has a brain bleed, a concussion and 12 staples in her head. Moore is on a breathing machine as he undergoes complete spinal reconstruction surgery. Gilbert hasn’t been able to see or speak to him.

"I’m happy he’s alive…I just miss him," she said.

Elizabeth's sister, Emily, has created this GoFundMe account to help the couple.

"The only thing left standing is cinder blocks and dirt, they’ve lost everything," she cried. "If you don’t have any money to make a donation, say a prayer…they’re doing good, but any prayer helps because mentally they’re not OK…they’re hurt." 

Gilbert is in deep shock and pain, on medication and under intense care, but when asked what she’d want people to learn from the tornado that killed seven of her neighbors, she did not hesitate. 

"Don’t take everything for granted…. if you’re alive, you’re alive… you have to keep fighting," she said. "Even if it's hard."