Buildings damaged by possible tornado

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– When the storm cut through the main building at McCourt & Sons equipment, the work day had just started and more than 30 employees were inside.

The complex is located along Hwy 71 just west of La Grange.

After the storm passed, a rain soaked Donald Davis walked out thankful to be alive. “I felt it felt like it was sucking pressure out of the building… Yeah just toured apart,” said Donald Davis.

The metal building broke open. Robert Bowen was inside and trapped.

“A water softener cylinder Penn my leg up against the wall the wind pulled me out of the door jam and look to be off the ground and while I was up my hands were free – upper body was free the only thing that was keeping me there was my leg was pinned,” said Bowen.

Several employees took cover in a conference room at the front of the building. Diane Moore was among those who road out the storm there. “The next thing you know it was boom boom boom boom boom. We were under the table at the time and you can start smelling the building dust and stuff like that,” said Moore.

Company owner Eamon McCourt was standing in his parking lot assessing the damage. He is amazed he and his employees escaped and no one was seriously hurt.

“I was on the phone with my wife earlier and she asked me if I saw God today. I got to be honest with you taking a look at that building right there, that building is completely demolished and the one part of building we were in that back far corner you felt the air get sucked out of the room but everybody walked out of that building and I attribute that to our god above,” said McCourt.

From the equipment business the path of the storm crossed Hwy71.

Debris was thrown into a grove of trees limbs that had twisted and broken apart. The storm slammed into the newly constructed buildings for the First Baptist Church of La Grange.

Part of the roof was peeled away  and a pavilion was crushed.

Work on the Church was almost done. Worship Leader Jeremy Conard said the congregation was scheduled for a walk-through on Saturday. “It’s going to be some time to recover from all that but it’s going to be good we will make it …  it’s a setback yeah, but people in Houston when Hurricane Harvey came through it was a setback for people there they all came through so it’s just one of those things you don’t like to see the damage or go through it but what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger,” said Conrad.

There was a brief hazmat scare. Emergency responders were called out because of a report that some storage tanks were leaking. The situation was quickly contained. A Survey Team with the National Weather Service arrived Friday afternoon and started a damage assessment.