Texas Tornado Destroys Ag Shop, But Doesn’t Stop FFA Members From Helping Community
A line of storms snaked through north and central Texas on Monday, resulting in several tornadoes along the Interstate 35 corridor. About 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, an F3 tornado touched down outside of Jacksboro at 3:45 p.m., ripping buildings to shreds, including the local high school, elementary school and ag shop.
“I felt so helpless,” says Kevin Thomas, ag teacher at Jacksboro Independent School District.
Thomas had left school to pick up his truck and trailer at his farm about 12 miles away when the tornado hit.
“I knew it hit my ag shop and there was nothing I could do,” he says. “Two co-teachers and 20 students were in the ag shop practicing for judging contests. All I could do was pray that nothing happened to them. Yes, they were capable, but my nature is to take care of things and when I couldn’t ...”
The Jacksboro High School's ag shop was torn apart in the tornado that produced 150-mph winds, says ag teacher Kevin Thomas. Video by Kevin Thomas.
Braced for Impact
The tornado ripped off the roof the ag shop and the high school gym. The elementary school also took a major hit with 200 kids inside waiting for buses to arrive.
It’s a miracle no one was seriously injured or killed, Thomas says. Survey teams have confirmed 10 tornadoes hit the area, which might increase as the National Weather Service continues to investigate damage.
“We just didn’t have much warning,” Thomas says. “It developed quickly and was on us so fast.”
Despite the devastation this town of 4,000 experienced, Thomas says he’s grateful. All of his students that stayed after school to practice for FFA contests were safe and none of the elementary school kids or their families were hurt.
A look inside the high school gym at Jacksboro after the tornado struck. Video provided by Kevin Thomas.
The school district has relatively new buildings specially designed and geared for tornadoes, he says.
“Every building has tornado hallways built along concrete structures with emergency gates that slide in place like a bunker. We do drills to prepare us for moments like this,” Thomas adds.
Unfortunately, the ag shop wasn’t quite as equipped, and his co-teachers had to hunker down in the bathrooms with all their students. Once the storm passed and Thomas made it back to the school around 4:15 p.m., his FFA students jumped in his truck, and they headed out into their community to help people one house at a time. They passed out waters and Gatorades and comforted elderly members of their community standing outside their homes in shock.
“There were no emergency workers in sight. We had to drag trees out of roadways and there were power lines down everywhere,” he says. “I brought in my skid steer and helped move trees off houses, living rooms, etc. I just wanted to help give people a little peace of mind. We just talked and worked alongside each other and our FFA kids helped every step of the way.”
FFA members pitch in and help with clean-up after the tornado. Photo by Kevin Thomas.
A Desire to Help
To his knowledge, this is the first tornado to hit their community, or at least since he moved there in the mid-1980s.
“We’ve been through some really rough times as a community, but never a storm like this. With all the turmoil in the world, food and fuel prices, politics, I just looked up yesterday and saw good in people,” Thomas says. “No judgment. Nothing but a desire to help. When things get tough, we lay our differences aside and focus on one mission, one goal. It was about being a good human and helping your neighbor.”
A drone's view of the damage at Jacksboro Independent School District. Video provided by Kevin Thomas.
The cost of the damage is still unknown. The school farm is wiped out. A week ago, Jacksboro FFA would have lost all the kids’ show pigs for Houston.
“We are starting a new season this week focusing on career development events,” he says. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like if this would have happened last week.
You can’t help but think there’s a man upstairs after driving through the community and seeing all the damage. How did we all make it out of this with hardly a scratch?”
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