For the first time, we have what is believed to be the full picture of the victims killed in this weekend’s deadly North Texas tornadoes.
Investigators say seven people died in the storms, including four children, with all the deaths coming in the Valley View area of Cooke County.
NBC 5 has now learned the names of all seven of those victims.
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On Monday, family members told NBC 5 that Victor Ortiz was a father and grandfather killed by the storm in Valley View.
At another home in the same neighborhood, Loyd Watson lost his life.
“We’d seen the house was gone,” said neighbor Jesse Helms. “So we started across there because we knew there was three people there.”
Friends said Watson and his two adult sons had been sheltering in their mobile home when the tornado hit.
Seeing the house blown to pieces, neighbors quickly started searching and learned the worst.
“The dad was already gone,” Helms said. “Nothing we could do for him unfortunately.”
Watson was found dead at the scene, and his two sons were left hospitalized with serious injuries.
Along with Watson and Ortiz, three members of the Esparza family died in the tornado near Valley View: Laura Esparza and her two children, 15-year-old Miranda and nine-year-old Marco.
A pair of two-year-old and five-year-old siblings also died when they were thrown from a nearby house.
NBC 5 isn’t releasing their names at this time due to their ages.
“My point is, the people are not replaceable, the stuff is,” Helms said. “This stuff can go away, no big deal, we’ll build back. you can’t get the people back.”
Even faced with destroyed homes and buildings, some people caught in the tornado’s track felt lucky.
They knew four families were left torn apart by these storms and would take much longer to heal.
“That was friends of ours, so I mean, it’s hard, all of this is hard,” said Helms. “There’s damage everywhere, this is people’s lives.”
Anyone wishing to support the Ortiz family can contribute to their GoFundMe campaign.
