After 'Devastating' Tornado, Jacksboro Community Begins To Rebuild
JACKSBORO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Just two days after a devastating EF-3 tornado ripped through the town of Jacksboro, the community has started rebuilding.
The Jacksboro school superintendent said classes will resume again next week. While the middle school is fine, the high school is waiting on some utilities, including power, to turn on. The elementary school is currently not in shape for students to return, so officials are looking at alternative sites like churches to hold class.
Meanwhile, others in the community are cleaning up and getting the help from volunteers.
What seems like a movie set is real life for dozens of families picking up what's left of their houses.
"Quite a bit of devastation. I was sitting in my recliner in front of the storm door and the wind blew- it cut me, I was protecting my face," said Richard Cleghorn. His house was destroyed by the tornado.
To help those who don't have a home to go back to, places like The Light Church lend their hands.
"There's just a ton of needs here in the city, and just a lot of people who have been displaced... So what we're just trying to do is to give a place everyone can come to," said Pastor Josh Norvill.
They're collecting clothes and toiletries while serving meals to those in need. Most of the food was donated by a local restaurant, Mesquite BBQ.
"We just wanted to help provide for those that didn't know you. These are our neighbors that we have to support in times like this," said owner Jack Nichols.
To help survey the damage, the non-profit Minutemen Disaster Response from McKinney went out to Jacksboro.
"What we are doing today is helping with the recon effort... we're flying a drone. The drone takes pictures along the way, getting a real time view of what's happening on the ground," said Mike Turnbow of the Minutemen team.
Their help is saving the local fire department about three weeks of working to get a bird's eye view of the damage.
"You can see what it looked like before, what it looks like now in the heavily hit areas... so incident command can do a damage assessment and they can plan out operations from that point," added Turnbow.
The Jacksboro police chief said the numbers of injuries and damaged homes are the same from yesterday, with 9 reported minor injuries in the town and about 80 houses damaged in Jack County.