Generous acts of kindness continue to pour into the East Texas area for the victims of the post-Christmas tornados in the cities of Rowlett, Fate, Garland and surrounding communities.
“We have all seen the destruction of this storm on the news and all of those in need,” said Three Rusty Nails pastor Kaleb Wright, on the EF4 destruction. “Sunday afternoon Kodi Wright and several of our church members started exchanging texts and ideas of how we could get supplies to these families.”
He reports with the help of Lisa Walker, Jenna O’Neal, and many other church members they had over 12,000 pounds of food and water donated to the church located on West Dallas Avenue in Cooper by Tuesday night.
Eight people died in Garland, including a man from Greenville, last Saturday night. An adult and an infant were killed in the Collin County town of Copeville during the series of tornadoes that swept across North Texas, as reported by KETR News. KERA News reports that of the 11 who died, eight people were killed in automobile accidents in Garland at Interstate 30 and George Bush Turnpike. Some of the cars appear to have been thrown from the highways and onto the ground.
Wednesday morning numerous church members and the youth group of Three Rusty Nails loaded the supplies and delivered them to the designated area for these victims, First Baptist Church, located at 124 South Washington Street in Farmersville, Texas. The church is open from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Currently, the church is no longer taking item donations. They will accept gift cards or monetary donations, only. They will also be providing hot meals and showers. Their website is www.fbcfarmersville.com.
But the generosity didn’t end in Delta County, Campbell Soup Company in Paris made a generous donation of six pallets of soup and drinks. The Tide Loads of Hope mobile laundry unit will be in the City of Rowlett on 6005 Dalrock Road accepting laundry from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Thursday, and the Duracell PowerForward truck assisted with free batteries and mobile charging stations, just to name a few acts of kindness. More information on these can be found on their Facebook pages.
“It was such a blessing to see the people's desire to help those in need, and such a blessing seeing the Youth Groups desire to help and be involved in helping others as well,” said Wright. “Amazing what people can do and accomplish when they unite together in Faith of a common goal.”
The National Weather Service has identified 11 tornadoes that occurred in North Texas and Northeast Texas during the Dec. 26, 2015 storms, including two in Collin County registering as EF4 and EF3, with Copeville receiving an EF2, Farmersville and Blue Ridge each with an EF1, one in Rains County and one in Hopkins County each were determined to be EF0's.
EF SCALE: THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE CLASSIFIES TORNADOES INTO THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES.
EF0...WEAK......65 TO 85 MPH
EF1...WEAK......86 TO 110 MPH
EF2...STRONG....111 TO 135 MPH
EF3...STRONG....136 TO 165 MPH
EF4...VIOLENT...166 TO 200 MPH
EF5...VIOLENT...>200 MPH
http://ketr.org/post/tornadoes-kill-2-copeville-1-blue-ridge-8-garland