Family of four survives possible tornado, mobile home destroyed

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

High winds, possibly a tornado, totally demolished a mobile home which was located in the Serbin area on County Road 217 just east of FM 448.

Four people, including a one-year-old child, were in the mobile home when the storm hit the Lee County area. All four people survived the incident which occurred at approximately 6:20

A.M. when severe thunderstorms rolled through Central Texas.

The mobile home was completely destroyed when it was picked up by high winds. The home was left in shambles approximately 200 feet from its original location. Parts of the mobile home and its contents were scattered all over the property. Insulation, sheet metal, and other constructions materials were found wrapped around branches of trees in an adjacent field.

A 19-year-old girl who was inside the mobile home when the storm hit, cut her arm and had to be taken by ambulance to St. Mark’s Medical Center in LaGrange. Other than bumps and bruises the other three members of the family were not harmed.

The mother of the one-year-old little boy said that she located her child under a mattress once the winds subsided. She stated that the storm came up so quickly the family had no time to prepare or seek a more solid shelter. Despite the chaos, she located her mother and the two of them carried the little boy and took cover in a minivan.

The 19-year-old girl received a cut on her wrist when she was thrown through a window. She attempted to run to a nearby house to get help and take cover.  In the darkness, she ran the wrong direction but eventually met up with the other three family members in the minivan. According to family members who were sifting through debris this afternoon, the young woman was treated for a serious laceration at St. Mark’s and then taken to a specialist in Austin for further care.

A barn on the property also sustained significant damage to its roof and walls. Tree tops were snapped off of many trees in the area and several large cedar trees were split down the middle.

Trees were reportedly blown down at a home in Giddings near the First Baptist Church. A gym at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lincoln received substantial damage, as did Stuermer’s Store in Ledbetter. Flash flooding was reported in parts of Bastrop County.