Deadly tornado devastates East Texas community
Small town in Polk County had little warning as powerful storm tore through, killing 3 and injuring 33
ONALASKA — A crowd of seven traveled across Kickapoo Creek in a pontoon boat, rushing to a road where they could call an ambulance.
The streets in their Onalaska neighborhood were impassable. The apparent tornado that tore through the East Texas town Wednesday night injured three of the vessel’s passengers, and they needed aid quicker than they could find it.
A boy on the boat screamed in pain as his grandmother offered comfort. A man gasped for breath, sprawled out on a door that had unhinged in the wind and served as his makeshift gurney. An elderly woman who narrowly escaped being flattened by her house’s collapse sat alongside a neighbor who happened to be a nurse as two others steered the boat.
For a night, the small community forgot about the international pandemic. They rescued their neighbors, they mourned the loss of their homes, they got ready to rebuild.
“Last night, nobody was concerned about the coronavirus,” said Kip Robins, who helped load the group of seven onto the boat but didn’t cross the lake. “Last night, people were hugging each other because we were just happy to be alive.”
Not everyone made it. Three people died, and 33 were injured. Among the dead was Taylor Holbert, the man on the makeshift stretcher. The group called 911 repeatedly, waiting hours for an ambulance, but didn’t get one on time to save the 29-year-old, said Debbie Robins, Kip’s wife and the
neighbor who was on the boat.
“I couldn’t do anything to help him,” Debbie Robins said. “You’re at the Lord’s mercy.”
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice identified Holbert and his 27year-old partner, Brooke Ivey, as prison employees and two of the victims. The third victim was identified only as a man in his 50s.
The tornado was one of several storms that also struck Oklahoma and Louisiana, killing at least four more. In Onalaska, about 85 miles north of Houston, the twister damaged 291 homes, Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy said.
The twister struck just as the community of about 1,800 residents was dealing with the novel coronavirus. The COVID-19 case count — at 17 and no deaths — isn’t as high as other areas, but residents remain vigilant and practice social distancing, Murphy said.
In a stark reversal from the past several weeks, barely a mask was in sight after the storm.
“This community is now facing two disaster declarations at the same time, because amidst the COVID pandemic, we are having to try to assist people who are in serious, serious distress,” Murphy said.
The Robins family owns one of the 46 houses thought to be beyond repair. Thursday morning, they assessed the wreckage as two poodles pawed over shingles and branches in the yard, and friends traversed the second story under an open sky.
‘God’s will’
Down the winding streets of the Yaupon Cove neighborhood where they live, homes and trailers mirrored similar points of destruction. The tornado sliced the community horizontally, the once towering pine trees now crisscrossed over yards and cutting some houses down the middle.
Residents described the area as a sort of retreat — a place where many people retire or stay on the weekends. But plenty live there full time. The homes are smaller and older on the outskirts of the neighborhood and increase in size approaching Lake Livingston.
Mayra Jimenez’s trailer flattened entirely, moving off its base and scattering in pieces over the land behind it. She and her family tried recovering what they could on Thursday, but it was hard to get through the rubble.
Standing yards away from a spot where the kitchen wall flipped upside down and landed against a tree, Jimenez, 40, described shielding her 10month-old granddaughter from the overpowering tornado. She said the wind lifted the baby, but she clung tightly. Otherwise, she knew there was little else she could do.
“I said, ‘Whatever is God’s will,’ ” she recalled.
When the wind slowed, Jimenez looked up and saw they were still on the couch, possibly 50 feet away from where it normally sat.
Dark sky, rumble
Meteorologists first warned of the tornado around 5:45 p.m. Wednesday. By 6:11 p.m., reports of damage began pouring in, according to statements from the county’s emergency management office.
The National Weather Service in Houston was sending experts to the site Thursday to confirm the tornado and assess the damage to determine how strong the winds were. It’s unclear how large the tornado was, but the county judge said it had a wide swath.
Residents were warned of the storm’s approach through a reverse 911 alert, Murphy said. The community has no public siren.
The siren did sound at the emergency management office, she said, when authorities were discussing the novel coronavirus.
While some noted emergency notices flashing on the TV, many residents only became aware of the tornado because of the suddenly dark sky and a rumble that could only be described as one that sounded like a train overhead.
They recalled an ordeal that seemed to last forever but probably took place over the course of a few minutes, and illustrated the moments when they heard the tornado tear through their individual homes.
Debbie Burns, 55, said she felt her house lift.
Nita Bryan, who lives on a street north of Yaupon Cove, said her husband threw his body into her to keep her from being pulled into the wind.
“It was horrific,” she said, a mask covering her face. “All I can say is the grace of God was on me.”
Julie Black stood on a slab of her former home on the same street, recalling the moment when she lay over her son in the bathtub to protect him.
“Everything started swirling,” she said. “When we got in the bathtub, the roof left. Shingles started falling on us.”
Residents reported being rescued from their homes on Wednesday night. Later Thursday, search and rescue teams continued additional passes in neighborhoods, primarily to assess homes’ infrastructure.
Few houses in the Yaupon Cove neighborhood emerged unscathed. Duke Drewry’s roof came clean off. Insulation hung over the side of the house, and his porch steps reached to the sky.
“I’ve had hurricane damage, but not this,” the 72year-old said.
Pamela Davis, 69, stood in her kitchen on Thursday, visible through an empty door frame. Like many, she said, she is in shock. She will likely have to demolish her home.
“This place had beautiful memories,” she said. “It’s gone.”