January 24, 2023 was a day I won’t easily forget. We knew it would be raining, and we knew that the weather was going to be pretty bad. No one guessed that a EF-3 tornado would barrel through the Pasadena/Deer Park area. The tornado is being reported as an EF-3 that was about 3/4 miles wide and was on the ground for 18 miles. It carved a path from the Almeda area to Baytown. It also managed to take my grandparent’s house and my aunt’s dance studio with it. By the grace of God, no one in the area has reported any serious injuries or fatalities. The estimates for damage should be tallied up in the next few days, and it should be a doozie. This was the first tornado of this size to come through the area as I understand it. I have certainly not seen anything of this sort in this area. It pales in comparison to places like Moore, OK or Joplin, MO that were decimated by tornados in recent years. However, this was our first brush with mother nature’s twisters, and it was humbling and terrifying. The media were close by when my cousin, Bryan, forced the door to the bathroom open. They had been huddled in the dance studio bathroom for safety when the roof was ripped off by the rushing wind and the ceiling collapsed. After only a few minutes, the camera’s were rolling. Below is a portion of the video that was broadcast on ABC stations across the nation.
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