As dawn broke over Lone Oak Road in Valley View, a battalion of first responders combed through yards and sifted through debris where residences once stood, continuing a search that neighbors like Randy Lane had initiated in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
“Charlie who lives down the road here, he called me over and he said, ‘Randy, there are babies missing,'” recounted Randy Lane.
Across from his own residence, which he had sheltered in during the tornado, a house was obliterated, leaving behind only a handful of cinderblocks. Officials disclosed that five of the six children who were inside the home when the tornado struck were swept away by its force.
“He found three babies out in the water. There’s a small waist-deep pond over there,” Lane detailed.
Fortunately, all three of these children were injured but alive. However, it wasn’t until mid-morning that search teams located the bodies of their 2-year-old and 5-year-old siblings nearby. They were among the seven individuals confirmed to have perished in the destructive storms of Saturday night.
With the advent of daylight, the full extent of devastation became apparent to those who had evacuated. Along the worst-affected streets, scarcely a home remained 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,” expressed Mary Chenault.
She and her husband, Brad, recounted hastily evacuating with their dogs and horses just in time the previous night. Upon their return this morning, they were confronted with the reality that their residence of seven years would require reconstruction.
“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,” emphasized Brad Chenault.
For many residents in Cooke County, as the day progresses, the only viable course is to forge ahead.
“The saying is, you rebuild, but you build stronger,” he asserted.
Among the same neighbors who had assisted in rescuing children from the pond on Lane’s property, another family had been saved: a mother and her 5-year-old son were extracted from the rubble adjacent to their residence. The family disclosed that the woman underwent surgery on Sunday, and her son is in stable condition.
