Twenty-nine houses were damaged by the tornado that ripped through Pickton in Hopkins County on County Road 2417, and dozens of trees were uprooted. Shirley Carden, whose grandchild was taking the school bus home, had one.
”So about that time we heard the roaring and sure enough here came the tornado,” Carden said. “And we were hanging on to the car and the garage went flipping over. Of course my grand babies were crying. They’re four and five.”
We tore down the garage and dumped the debris in the yard. There was a hole in the roof of the house, but everyone was safe and sound in their vehicle in the garage. ”Everybody’s okay, thank the Lord,” Carden said. Next door is Ray Woodarski’s house. He and several mates were out on the terrace shooting bumper pool.
“Somebody said the man ‘that train sounds loud,’” Woodarski said. “And I said ‘that ain’t no train. The train noise comes from there.’ We looked up and there it was coming straight through the doggone woods like Moses was parting the Red Sea.”
According to Woodarski, they observed the tornado siphon water from a nearby creek before taking refuge inside the building. ”And we actually felt the house lift up and move a foot, you know towards the back of the woods,” Woodarski said. A tornado ripped through the neighborhood, and he looked out his rear window and thought, “I’m a dead man.”
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Still, he emerged unscathed from the ordeal. The tornado kept ripping across the forest, knocking down power lines and trees. ”I mean we can replace material things but we can’t replace people,” Carden said. Despite the fact that a school bus full of kids was in the tornado’s path, no one was hurt.
Because of the widespread destruction, Como-Pickton ISD Superintendent Greg Bower has decided to cancel classes for Friday. At about 5:30 o’clock in the evening, he made the following message on the ISD’s Facebook page. The Harrison Chicken Ranch near Pickton lost a chicken quarantine house, an above-ground swimming pool, and some patio furniture to the wind.
In addition, they reported that there is additional destruction to the north and northwest of Foster’s Restaurant. Juvenile Court Judge Leward LaFleur of Marion County has reported extensive damage in both Kellyville and Berea. There should be no one in those parts, he says. Some East Texas residents have sent in images of their local weather conditions.