Neighbors gathered to help each other looked for lost loved ones and start moving forward after a tornado ripped through Cooke County. NBC 5’s Allie Spillyards shares stories from the community.
As the sun rose over Lone Oak Road in Valley View, an army of first responders scoured yards and dug through rubble where homes once stood, picking up a search that neighbors like Randy Lane began in the moments after the storm.
“Charlie who lives down the road here, he called me over and he said, ‘Randy, there are babies missing,'" said Randy Lane.
Across the street from his home, where he rode out the tornado, a house is gone. All that remains are a handful of cinderblocks. Officials said five of the six kids who were inside the home when the storm hit were sucked out by the tornado.
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“He found three babies out in the water. There's a small waist-deep pond over there,” he said.
All three of the children were injured but alive.
It would be mid-morning before search crews would find the bodies of their 2-year-old and 5-year-old siblings nearby. They were two of seven people officials confirmed died in Saturday night's deadly storms.
Daylight also revealed the scope of destruction for those who left. Along the hardest hit streets, not a home is untouched.
“I had kind of a moment when I got here, and I cried. I’ll cry again. It’s just really sad to see it,” said Mary Chenault.
Chenault and her husband, Brad, said they loaded up their dogs and horses last night just in time. They didn’t get back until this morning to see that their home of seven years would need to be rebuilt.
“If you’ve never been in a tornado and you hear of a warning and they tell you to shelter or get out, that’s what they’re meaning, get out. Because all of this, and all the lives that are lost, I mean, it’s just devastating,” said Brad Chenault.
For many in Cooke County, as the day drags on, the only direction to move is forward.
“The saying is, you rebuild, but you build stronger,” he said.
Those same neighbors who helped pull children from the pond on this property also rescued a mom and her 5-year-old son from rubble next door. Their family said that the woman underwent surgery on Sunday and her son is stable.
