Today, October 20, 2023, is the 4-year anniversary of the EF3 Tornado that ravaged our neighborhood. Our house was damaged. Our chimney was smashed by a piece of concrete flying off a neighbor’s house, and our roof was damaged and needed to be replaced. In addition, our garage door was destroyed, and the wiring and pipes in the attic were destroyed, our fence was damaged, and my grill flew across the yard. The cost of the repairs was $50,000.00.
However, we were lucky. Several of our neighbors’ houses were demolished and my wife’s parents house was a lot more damaged than our house was. The wind from the Tornado lifted my 89-year-old father-in-law up in the air and he was hit by a broken marble table that injured his back. The school where our boys used to go, St. Marks School of Texas, was badly damaged and the walls of the gymnasium blew away.
I remember this fateful day as if it was yesterday. I was sitting outside in my backyard drinking my favorite SMASH IPA, Yellow Rose, from Lone Pint, Texas, ABV 6.8%. IPA stands for India Pale Ale, a type of beer that contains a lot of hops. SMASH IPA is an IPA brewed with one type of Malts and one type of Hops (Single Malt, Single Hop). The single hop in this case is Mosaic.
Anyway, my phone started making a loud sound. It was an alarm announcing a tornado warning and, in the distance, I could hear a faint tornado siren. At first, I thought it was nothing but when I saw the lightning approaching, I decided to go inside. Two minutes later a hailstorm made things very loud, the wind was strong, and the house shook, and then we heard a loud explosion. That was our chimney being smashed.
After the wind had died down a bit, I opened the door to the backyard, and what I saw shocked me. My gas grill had flown across the patio. There were bricks and pieces of concrete all over the patio and the lawn. There was a big sheet of metal lying on the patio. Big tree branches covered the lawn. There was debris everywhere. We had also lost power. It turns out that the EF3 tornado had gone through our neighborhood and passed within fifty to one hundred yards of our house.
My wife Claudia asked me to go check on her parents. I drove about 50-100 yards when a neighbor’s roof lying across the road stopped me. I turned around but this time I was stopped by a large pile of trees lying across the street. So, I started walking, but this time I was stopped by a group of firemen telling me that it was too dangerous to be outside. They told me to go back home, and I did.
October of 2019 was a very difficult month for our Leonberger Bronco. He was getting old. He was twelve years old, and he had the first signs of geriatric-onset laryngeal paralysis polyneuropathy (or GOLPP), which made his breathing a bit labored and affected his gait. In addition, he had developed another case of squamous cell carcinoma, a toe-nail cancer, and this time on his right rear paw. We amputated his toe on October 3—the day he turned twelve years and three months old.
Leonberger Life 
It was scary and horrifying, Thomas! The damages of your house cost $50,000 to repair. I can’t imagine the worse damages of your neighbors’ houses. Sorry to hear your 89 year old father-in-law was lifted by the tornado and his back got hit. I hope he recovered well. It’s a horrible memory but I’m glad you and Claudia are okay. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you Miriam. At first I did not even realize it was a tornado despite the Tornado warning. I thought it was just a bad storm with large hail and what seemed like an explosion in our chimney, I couldn’t even guess what that was. The whole thing (well the severe storm part) took not even one minute. Then I opened the door to the backyard and I saw the carnage. Then I knew. The houses that took a direct hit from the tornado were totally flattened. The tornado passed about 50-100 yards from our house. We needed a new chimney, a new roof, a new garage door, a new fence, the attic and the wiring there was damaged, and my grill was destroyed, and we needed major clean up of debris. But our house stood.
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It was amazing that your house stood, Thomas. It was a miracle that your house didn’t get the direct hit and missed by 50-100 years. I had watched the news about tornadoes and had dinner ideas of how fast it went. There’s nothing you can do when it happens unless you have a basement to keep safe.
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Yes, it was a close shave. Afterwards you could see where the tornado had been. It left a trail. Our house stood, the house immediately to the south of our house also stood, then the second house was totally flattened, then the third house stood. It was a small tornado with the max destruction area maybe 20-30 yard wide, or one house wide. I should say in Texas we usually don’t have basements because the ground move too much. We sat in the living room not realizing the danger anyway.
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How awful!!!! I know exactly how you feel. I live in South Carolina…hurricane country. I’m used to dealing with these destructive monsters every year. But the worst was Hurricane Huge (Cat 4) in 1989. And, yes, I still remember it like yesterday. It was the worst to hit us, because the eye passed within 30 miles of us with hurricane force winds over 100 miles per hour. Hugo was so loud it sounded like a train heading straight for us. You could hear trees flying through the air crashing all around us and transformers exploding. It was all the more terrifying because this happened in the dark at 2:00am in the morning, which made the electrical explosions as loud as bombs and bright as firecrackers. I was praying nonstop!! We were truly blessed and sustained no damage (miraculously). I’m so sorry your home and neighborhood were damaged. But I’m glad you’re okay. It’s a horrifying experience!!
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Wow that was a scary experience. Category 4 is a very powerful hurricane. I think I remember hurricane Hugo, but I was living in Sweden at the time. At least we don’t have hurricanes in north Texas. Well Houston does, but not Dallas. I’ve never been in an hurricane. I should say north Texas including Dallas is in Tornado Alley so tornadoes are pretty common here.
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Tornadoes are very scary too!! We get those as well. Tropical storms and hurricanes spawn hundreds of tornadoes in the outer bands. Thanks to Monsanto planting thousands of their mutant pine trees all over South Carolina decades ago, we have these tall pines with very shallow root systems in our sandy soil. Doesn’t take much to topple one of those 40 foot pines. If they do manage to stay rooted, they are so flimsy a tornado makes the top of the tree slap the ground repeatedly. It’s the most bizarre sight. I’m sure you’ve seen that too!!
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I’ve seen the flapping trees you are talking about on TV but I’ve never been in a hurricane. I was in the aftermath and outskirts of hurricane Sandy. I was looking for Universities for my eldest son. But I’ve never seen the action of a hurricane for real. Lots of trees were uprooted during our tornado but I was inside. So what you are talking about I’ve only seen on TV. I knew that hurricanes can cause tornadoes but I did not know how common it is. Hurricane country is one place that would be scary to live. Be safe.
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Thanks so much!! 💗
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Wow! So much damage in your neighborhood. I hope your FIL recovered okay after his ordeal. Living here in TX we do have tornadoes sometimes. My story was the Lubbock tornado EF-5 in May of 1970. I wrote a post about it a few years ago. I still have nightmares of being in that one.
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Thank you Barbara. Yes despite his age he is in good shape and he recovered well without going to the hospital. He had a one foot bleeding sore but refused to go. He recently had his 93rd birthday. I remember reading about the Lubbock tornado on your blog and I also remember reading about it in, I believe Readers Digests, decades ago. I think you were referencing your post about the Lubbock tornado in a more recent post and that is how I got to read your post. EF-5 tornadoes are crazy things. I had a friend who was in the EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Hundreds of people died.
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That is wonderful for your FIL to have come through that tornado with mostly only house damage. For sure if you’ve ever been in one you never forget it. I do remember hearing about the Missouri one, too.
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Thank you Barbara. Yes the Jopin tornado was in 2011 and 158 people died. My friend was fine though.
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What a frightening experience. I’m so glad you all survived!
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Thank you so much Priscilla. We were lucky. We also had good insurance.
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How horrifying. I’m glad that there wasn’t more damaging, and hope your FIL recovered well.
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Thank you so much. Luckily my father-in-law was (and is) in very good shape for his age. He had a one foot long bleeding sore on his back and still refused to go to the hospital. But he recovered well. He had is 93rd birthday at the end of September.
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I remember you writing about this. How frightening this was. I’m sorry. I didn’t know the repairs to your house were that expensive. And I remember your in-laws were hit especially hard. How awful. Those sorts of things do stay with you.
My best wishes to you and your family.
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Thank you so much Denise. Yes I wrote about this in my book and I’ve also posted about it before. Luckily we all had good insurance. Our insurance company paid for everything except for a small deductable and a broken outside table. Our in-laws insurance company paid for all repairs and 6 months of rent for a nice apartment. Their house was not livable after the tornado, but ours was. I should say we live only a mile apart.
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I remember that awful event. So glad all of your family–including pets–faired well.
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Thank you so much Jacqui. Yes we were lucky.
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That sounds like a scary experience. It reminds me of a story my mom used to tell about the night a bad tornado struck when she and my dad lived in Cleburne circa 1954 and my brothers were quite young. They came through fine, but there had been a lot of damage from that storm as well.
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I’ve driven through Cleburne (Texas) on my way to Glenrose many times. We used to go hunting birds, deer, pigs, etc., and we visited the dinosaur valley and fossil rim wildlife reserve. Anyway, I bet that was a scary experience. Back then they didn’t have cell phones with tornado warnings and no doppler radar. It was a lot more of an unpleasant surprise. But I am glad they were fine.
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Wow, thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for commenting JR
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Wow! You and your wife were blessed to have so narrowly escaped the full blast of the tornado. How traumatic it must’ve been for your 89-year-old father-in-law to find himself airborne! We humans are helpless in the force of Mother Nature.
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Thank you Rosaline. Luckily my father-in-law was inside the house when a window was smashed and things, including him, was temporarily thrown around. One cracked marble table hitting him in the back. He was holding on to a door frame. That sounds incredible but he is pretty strong for his age.
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Thank the gods!
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