SEALY, Texas — The entire Sealy Independent School District was forced to shut down Wednesday morning after severe weather wreaked havoc across the the area, causing tremendous storm damage to homes and businesses and taking out multiple power lines.
Throughout the night small tornados touched down in the small town— uprooting large oak trees, plowing through family homes and starling the community. Electricity is out throughout most the area, officials said.
Stephanie Litchauer has owned the Creekmore’s Sports Bar in Sealy for more than 13 years. She said several patrons were inside the venue when the storm hit.
“We were open. We had customers. We had our dominos players here,” Litchauer said. “It came in very hard and fast— a door blew open, then another door blew open, and then you couldn’t see anything out front because the hail was so bad.”
Litchauer looked on as the building’s roof started to tear away, she said. The owner was dragged into the office by one of her customers.
“It felt like it lasted forever,” she said. “We have the trains that go by everyday. [But] at first, because the hail came down so hard and quick, that’s all you heard. There was no train sound— no nothing.”
Litchauer said family members, friends and customers have reached out to help. She’s confident they’ll be able to rebuild the business.
The winds were strong enough to turnover several 18 wheelers that were parked along I-10. The highway was shutdown in both directions as crews worked through the early morning hours to remove the commercial trucks and address other immediate issues.
Brazos ISD was also impacted by the storm, and district administrators delayed school time until 10 a.m. Wednesday.
As of now, no injuries have been officially reported.
by Ciara Rouege
May 24, 2017
