The sounds of generators echoed in the courtyard of an apartment complex on Lancaster Avenue in Oak Cliff. Families had to navigate a treacherous obstacle course of storm damage.
"We were outside. It happened in one minute," storm victim Elda Peralta said.
Peralta and her husband hardly had time to get in their apartment and take cover in a closet.
"Like a big train in coming here," Peralta said describing the sound. "Really, really bad noise. Really bad!"
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Peralta said in a couple of minutes, the damage was done. Her windows were broken. Her first-floor living room ceiling, sagging from the rain that came in when the storm tore the roof off a huge section of her building.
"Never in my life. It's my first experience," Peralta said. "It's really, really horrible. Horrible!"
Peralta said she slept in her car Thursday night.
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The American Red Cross Disaster Assessment Team was out taking photos and notes to see how to help the people who live on Lancaster Avenue.
"Regardless of the cause; whether it's straight-line winds, or something else, we just want to take care of the people," American Red Cross Disaster Program Manager Jen Edwards said. "You can't help but be sad because you see all these folks displaced from their homes and we want to make sure they're taken care of, and so that's why we're out here collecting this information."
"Look at everything, like windows are broken, all the stuff outside," Peralta said. "It was terrible. It was terrible."
No word on whether the National Weather Service has classified what came through the neighborhood as a tornado or something else.
"But thank you heaven, we are OK," Peralta said.
