Only minor injuries after 150 mph tornado slams Jacksboro, destroys 80 homes, school gyms
As they continued to clean up and take stock of damage from an EF3 tornado, residents in Jacksboro said they’re thankful only a few minor injuries were reported in Monday’s storm that destroyed about 80 homes and ripped off parts of the roofs at a high school and an elementary school.
Some residents had a little luck. They received a tornado warning on their phones two minutes before the storm touched down. But for others who live on North Ninth Street, they had to rely on the sirens outside, and in seconds, take cover.
Tav Radcliffe had been staying in a trailer on his brother’s property for the last year or so. The storm demolished the mobile home and threw Radcliffe outside.
“I was inside and it’s totaled,” Radcliffe said Tuesday morning. “I do believe in God. I had a little bubble there — everything else got destroyed where I was but that little bubble. So I know there’s a higher power because I’m here. If you see my trailer, you’d say I’d be dead. It’s in pieces back there.”
Radcliffe said he didn’t even hear the tornado come. He just heard his goats, who ended up dead under his trailer.
On Tuesday, Radcliffe walked through a field littered with debris, including diaper boxes, knocked-over telephone poles and wires. At the end of the property, he showed a reporter his totaled trailer, where all that remained were broken floor tiles and scraps of metal piled on top of each other.
“That’s my floor, literally upside down. (The tornado) threw me out right here,” he said, pointing to a broken wire fence about 10 feet away. “I was flying in the air and it threw me there, and I kind of knocked out. I hit that fence. I think I used that right there [he pointed to a piece of wood], I used that piece right there to cover myself last second.”
Radcliffe’s only injuries were a cut on his leg and scuffed-up knuckles.
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Radcliffe had been through Hurricane Harvey. He said the hurricane “messed up” his trailer a little bit, “but this one completely ruined it.”
Radcliffe was still in good spirits, though he lost all of his belongings.
“My mom says don’t let people rob you of your glory. I’m not going to let a (tornado) rob me of my glory either, or my happiness,” he said. “I’m just glad to still be here.”
“My brother’s telling me (I’m OK) because I’m tough and I’m like, ‘Nah man, that was God.’ I have no doubt.”
Disaster declared in 16 Texas counties
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday visited Jacksboro and signed a disaster declaration for 16 counties, waiving certain regulations to speed up recovery and assistance.
The counties are Bastrop, Cass, Cooke, Grayson, Guadalupe, Houston, Jack, Madison, Marion, Montague, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, Upshur, Williamson and Wise.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth had confirmed 10 tornadoes that touched down near North Texas. The Associated Press reported several tornadoes hit Monday along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin and close to Dallas-Fort Worth.
Thirty miles northeast of Jacksboro, near Bowie, the damage was widespread. Four people suffered minor injuries, Emergency Manager Kelly McNabb told the AP. Local emergency management officials told the weather service multiple structures were damaged. The reports included a structure collapse on Texas 101, houses “flattened” on Salona Highway, and damage to homes in the area of Brushy Road, Bishop Road and Well Service Road.
A 73-year-old woman was killed in Grayson County, north of Dallas. At least 10 other people were injured there.
Jacksboro is about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
About 80 homes in the city and Jack County have been destroyed and it’s unclear exactly how many people have been displaced, Jacksboro Police Chief Scott Haynes said.
The National Weather Service is still assessing the situation but the hardest-hit areas of the city, including the gyms at two schools, likely saw winds up to 150 mph, said Jennifer Dunn, a warning coordination meteorologist.
Based on preliminary data, the tornado is classified as an EF-3 with winds between 140 and 150 mph, Dunn said.
The Jacksboro Animal Shelter is believed to be a total loss due to tornado damage, said Jason Jennings, rural county fire chief.
During the storm, 22 dogs were displaced at the animal shelter but a large number of them have been recovered, he said. Several local animal shelters have relocated the dogs.
Schools damaged
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The tornado ripped the roofs off the gymnasiums at Jacksboro High School and Jacksboro Elementary School.
School officials said students and staff were able to take shelter and no one was hurt. The district canceled classes on Tuesday. The superintendent of schools said that he expects classes to resume Monday.
At a livestreamed press conference outside Jacksboro Elementary School early Tuesday morning, Haynes said sheltering inside school safe rooms may have saved the lives of students, staff and parents, who had been waiting in line Monday afternoon to pick up their kids.
Haynes and another officer waded through several inches of water and debris to check on the people in the elementary school shelter. The situation could have been much worse, he said.
“Look around this parking lot and you see cars upside down and you see a lot of devastation,” Haynes said.
Fire department officials at the press conference said four people were rescued from homes and nine people were treated at hospitals for minor injuries.
Behind the high school on Tuesday, ripped-up yellow insulation foam covered the parking lot, grass and trees. Crews were working to restore electricity, and more workers were expected to arrive later to help with cleanup.
A shelter has been set up at the Twin Lakes Activity Center, at 1114 Texas 59 in Jacksboro, city police said on social media.
‘My house lifted up’
Betty Thompson lived in her home on North Ninth Street for more than 40 years before it was destroyed by Monday’s storm. She was alone when the tornado came through.
“An alarm went off on my phone and I grabbed pillows and see that closet right there?” she said, pointing to a white door, that is now exposed outside. “I sat in my closet and everything was just piling on top of me. I wasn’t hurt, but I could just feel it piling.”
“By the grace of God, I’m here,” Thompson said. “They pulled me out and I got stuff back. At least I have things. I didn’t lose totally everything. I don’t know what else to say than I’m here.”
Like other residents said, she only had minutes to prepare. She heard the sirens, which gave her time to hide.
“I was just thinking that I wanted to see my children again,” she said, crying. “It felt like my house kind of lifted up. And I was like, ‘Here I go.’ But I’m here. I’m here. I get to see my children. Everything’s good.”
On Tuesday she had her grandchild, son-in-law, nephew and friends helping clean through the debris and see what they could find.
‘I don’t have a home anymore’
On Tuesday morning, Frances Wilson, 90, sat on a wooden chair in what was her living room for the last 32 years. The room was covered in glass and debris, and what used to be a giant window was just an empty frame where the wind was entering the home.
Wilson, who lives near the elementary school, had just let her dog, an 11-year-old Shih Tzu named Oscar, outside to go to the bathroom when she heard thunder. She just thought it was a strong storm. After living in the area for decades, she never expected a tornado, until two of her children called her and told her she had to take cover as soon as possible.
“My daughter called me and was like, ‘Mom are you watching the news?’ And I said, ‘They’re lined up out here and picking the kids up from school.’”
Her daughter told her to take cover, Wilson said, “so I was running out and got my dog and we got in this little bathroom right here, I got in the shower and I barely got in it. Then something hit that door, like a freight train hit it, and I thought it opened the door because the rain started pouring in on me ... I had no idea where the rain was coming from.”
The rain poured from a destroyed wall to the side of the shower and the collapsed roof. In her bathroom, only the cement shower kept Wilson and her dog safe.
Minutes later, she heard someone in her home.
“I heard a man holler, ‘Is anybody here?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I’m in the bathroom,’ and he had to move all this stuff (to get me out).”
Wilson, who previously broke both her hips, said she’s lucky she was in good health and able to move quickly.
“My husband passed away last year ... and I’m glad the good Lord took him and he didn’t have to be in here in that mess, you know? ... He had a stroke and I’m not real sure if I could have gotten (him in the shower) so the Lord works in mysterious ways.”
Dozens of her family members, including two of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were at her home Tuesday helping clean up and save any furniture and belongings that weren’t destroyed. Wilson plans to stay with her family as she navigates her future.
“I don’t think it’s hit me that I don’t have a home anymore,” she said. “I’m 90 years old and I have never seen a tornado before. I’ve never been in one. I don’t want to be in another ever again.”
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Surrounded by damage
April Brinegar lived a few houses down from Radcliffe and on the opposite side of the street.
“My son came in and told me (about the tornado) and it came up really fast,” she said. “I didn’t even see a tornado warning that I know and the internet was glitchy so I couldn’t follow the radar, it just glitched out right at 4 o’clock.”
Brinegar said she and her son got in a hallway in their home that closes off from entryways and grabbed mattresses to hide under.
“I just heard the wind pick up and a huge boom, which I think was this transformer and it was over pretty quick,” Brinegar said.
She said on Monday, the roads were covered in debris. Structures to the left and right of her home were damaged, with broken roofs, missing windows and gutters falling off. She had no idea how the tornado missed her home, she said.
“It was around us pretty much,” she said. “We just have huge trees down down in the back. It’s going to be a while” until life returns to normal.
“The sirens went off, but it was only like two minutes before the tornado was here,” Brinegar said. “I was screaming and crying because I’m terrified of a tornado. I’ve never actually been in one like this — I mean I’ve been in some scary situations, but never hit like this, right by me.”
“My son was like, ‘Stay calm, stay calm,’ and somehow he managed to stay calm,” Brinegar said. “It would have been worse, but it was over so fast that I mean, you didn’t have too much time to be afraid. Then the sun just came out afterwards. ... I’m glad for that because you know, a lot of times it just keeps storming afterwards and you have to worry about more storms coming through but we didn’t have that.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 10:32 AM.
