Rebuilding still underway one year after EF-3 tornado wreaks havoc across Valley View

On the night of May 25th, 2024, a severe storm set off warnings across North Texas.

“We were under the stairs in our storm area, and I was watching where it was going to hit in Cooke,” said County Commissioner Jason Snuggs.

Still, nothing could’ve prepared anyone for the trail of damage an EF-3 tornado etched across Valley View.

Snuggs was one of the first on the scene.

“I couldn’t believe what I saw, it was… I described it looked like a war zone. It looked like people were playing paintball with grenade launchers because everything was just gone,” he said. “As soon as I got there, there were people carrying people to me that were bleeding and hurt onto the road.”

“I remember waking up on my back, looking up at the sky, looking around, trying to figure out where I was,” said Zach Moore.

Zach Moore and his fiancée Elizabeth Gilbert said shortly before the storm hit, they’d returned home from taking engagement photos. They sheltered in a closet with their pets. Minutes later, the entire house was tossed into the air, broken into pieces across their neighbor’s yard.

“There was no sound, no wind. We couldn’t hear any rain or anything. It was just silent. And the next thing I knew was the floor lifting above me and just darkness,” said Elizabeth Gilbert.

“I started hearing her cry. It felt like she was a few feet from me, and I’m hearing her phone ring. And as I was hearing her cry, I said, 'This is not it.' This is where I wasn’t going to end the story yet," said Moore.

Moore woke up in a hospital with both a feeding and breathing tube. He spent a month in the ICU and four more in rehab, recovering from a collapsed lung and nearly severed spinal cord.

NBC 5 was there when Gilbert was released from another hospital, where she spent a week recovering from a brain bleed and concussion.

Along with everything they owned, the couple lost two cats to the storm.

They’ve moved in with family as they figure out their next steps.

“It was just nature doing its thing, and I don’t like the fact that I was part of that, but I have to look at the bright side. I’m still here. I still have the person that I wanted to be with, and love,” said Moore.

In total, seven people died that night. 

That included a mother and her two children and toddler siblings who were thrown from their home.

It took six crews several hours to find their bodies in a nearby pond.

“It changes the world for everybody,” said Snuggs.

One year later, and you can still see the signs from that tornado. There are some people still living in damaged homes, others who’ve yet to rebuild. Snuggs said he estimates they are just 40% recovered.

Together, FEMA and Cooke County have invested $2 million in recovery efforts.

A committee of volunteers is still working to disperse the other money raised.

“It’s easy sometimes to lose faith in mankind, but then you see a disaster like this, and the people who come from all over the country to help us. It’s been very heartwarming,” he said.

Still, some will never return.

Moore and Gilbert haven’t decided if they will. But on this anniversary of the night that derailed their lives, they are focused on figuring out where they go from here.