People who survived Monday’s direct tornado hit on Jacksboro Elementary School returned to the campus Tuesday and shared stories.
“I just still can’t believe it. We’ve just got to take it day by day,” said parent Blanca Uribe.
It was carpool time as school was about to be dismissed Monday afternoon when people outside were alerted to the approaching storm.
“We were all in line to pick up and they came out and told us to get inside so we all just parked wherever and ran inside,” Parent Aleisa Coan said.
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She returned to the mangled campus Tuesday to recover a few belonging from the car that she had been sitting in that flipped upside down moments after she left it Monday.
She had been on the phone with Blanca Uribe who was waiting at home for Coan to carpool her daughter Ema Ramirez.
Coan and Ramirez sheltered inside the school as the twister hit.
“My sister was crying. I was trying to help her. I was having a panic attack. I calmed myself down. I’m happy I wasn’t in the car though,” Ramirez said.
Uribe weathered the storm nearby at her home.
“And I got the dog, we went down there to the basement, and I put the washer, and the door, and put a mattress over me and just waited. And it was very fast,” Ramirez said.
Stockton Sanders, a 9-year old student, returned to the school with his mother Tuesday to see what had happened to the place where he experienced the sound of that storm
“When you like slam something hard, it felt like a vibrating sound,” he said.
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High School student Kloi Boyeson had just arrived at the elementary school with her grandmother to pick up a cousin.
“I couldn’t see anything. I was getting hit in the face with insulation and we finally got in. We had to lie on the ground inside of the door,” Boyeson said. “The tornado passed right over us. It was scary. I never want to deal with that again.”
As the building shattered all around them, many of the adults and students sheltered behind steel doors that roll down to block safe hallways.
Jacksboro Police Chief Scott Haynes has a special connection to the elementary school. He serves there as a volunteer during morning carpool drop-off. So he knew many of the afternoon pick-up people.
He was emotional at a Tuesday morning press conference as he spoke about being one of the first responders to the tornado damage.
“And it's just a miracle,” Haynes said.
Haynes was emotional as he spoke at an early morning press conference about being one of the first responders to the school he knew so well.
Later, walking through the mangled building he described finding everyone safe inside. He praised school staff for their response to the storm.
“We’re just blessed that there haven’t been any serious injuries or death. Just a true blessing,” Haynes said.
There was also damage across the road at Jacksboro High School. The roof was torn off the gymnasium. Light poles and goal posts were twisted on the football field.
But damage was much more severe at the elementary school.
“When you see the damage everywhere else, it could have been way worse,” Aleisa Coan said Tuesday as she stood beside her damaged car. “It’s a car. It’s not a person.”
About 80 homes around the school were severely damaged or destroyed and a local hospital was damaged.
Nine people in Jacksboro suffered minor injuries but all were treated and released.
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