Tolar Residents Start Cleaning Up After Tornado
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TOLAR (CBSDFW.COM) - Even with more storms hitting parts of North Texas on Wednesday, the focus for families in the Hood County community of Tolar is on cleanup and recovery, after much of the city was ravaged by a tornado less than a day ago.
Tolar is located to the southwest of Granbury. Hood County commissioner James Deaver toured the area on Tuesday and saw the Tolar damage firsthand. "It looks like a bomb went off," he explained. "Mobile homes turned upside down and tin lying everywhere."
Indeed, it was Jack's Trailer Park that appeared to be the hardest hit on Tuesday by what has since been classified as an EF-1 tornado. The neighborhood is now littered with massive amounts of debris. Residents and volunteers have already started working to remove some of the damaged homes.
Some people stated that they ran to their bathtubs or hit the floor as powerful winds started tossing the mobile homes around like toys. One couple was inside of their home when it was thrown across the trailer park. After the tornado passed, neighbors began digging through piles of debris in a search for Glenda and Johnny Walker.
A relative of the Walker family said that Glenda suffered a broken back and will need surgery. Johnny has a broken pelvis and a collapsed lung, and is now in intensive care.
The destroyed mobile homes all belonged to one person, the owner of Jack's Trailer Park and the man who leased them out to residents. "It took a good half a day yesterday for it to sink in and start making you shake a little bit," said Jack Fisk. "I know that all of these things must happen. I know that anything like this that happens can be turned to good."
Fisk plans to rebuild the mobile home park. But he must first start by cleaning up his well house, so that he can pump water to the handful of people who are still staying on the property. Electricity is a top priority before Fisk can think about moving out the mess.
The owner is hoping that insurance will cover the cost to replace more than six destroyed homes and the many more that were badly damaged. Fisk expects the recovery effort to take a few years, but he made the decision to go through with it anyway, just hours after the tornado struck.
The entire community hopes that the storms on Wednesday will clear up soon, giving them a chance to start digging through the piles of debris and seeing what can be recovered. Many families will be forced to start over. Deaver said that the American Red Cross is helping residents in the city. "Tolar Baptist Church is open for the people affected, to help them get gasoline or whatever they need," Deaver said. "The doors are open."
Most of the damage in nearby Granbury was isolated to the Meander Estates community on the northern side of town. It was the bizarre hit-and-miss damage that is often seen after a tornado, where one home is hit by the storm while a house next door is left untouched. Most of that damage was to roofs and fences. Crews spent Tuesday patching up holes and picking up debris, but nobody there was injured.