OKLAHOMA - As the massive tornado struck, Oklahoma resident Barbara Garcia huddled in the bathroom of her house with her dog and said two prayers: One, that she would survive; two, that her dog would escape unharmed too.

Both her prayers were answered. In the aftermath, as she stood among the rubble, shaken but uninjured, talking to CBS News' Anna Werner about her ordeal, her dog, which she had been searching frantically for, poked its head out of the rubble just behind her.

"Help me," said a relieved Mrs Garcia, as she bent stiffly down to free the dog, even as a television crew member rushed to lift the rubble.

Just before the reunion, which was caught on camera, Mrs Garcia had been describing her ordeal of crawling out of her collapsed house.

"(Then) I hollered for my little dog and he didn't answer, he didn't come, so I know he's in here somewhere," she said, gesturing to the remains of her house.

Mrs Garcia's dog moved a bit stiffly at first but after a few minutes, seemed to be trotting along with no problems.

"Well I thought God had answered just one prayer: Let me be okay. But he answered both of them, because this was my second prayer," said Mrs Garcia as she patted her dog.