Abby Peters was sitting in a closet with her daughter, Veronica Bowers, and Bowers’ 10-month-old daughter when the EF2 tornado ripped through Valley View in Cooke County.
The three made it out of Bowers’ home alive, but Bowers was seriously injured and is in the hospital, according to a fundraiser set up for the family.
Bowers was the manager of a Shell travel center at Interstate 35 and Lone Oak Road in Valley View. It is where between 50 and 60 people took shelter when the tornado struck. They hid in bathrooms and the adjacent restaurant.
By Sunday morning, the gas station was a mess of rubble and rubble. More than fifty cars sat in parking lots and next to gas pumps, under what used to be awnings. There were at least four semi-trailers, one on its side and another wrapped around a pole that used to support one of those covers over the pumps.
The air around the station had a smoky, bitter smell. Warped metal and disjointed building and sign parts screeched and groaned and rattled as they bent and swayed in the wind.
And not only did Bowers and Peters lose their homes and vehicles, Bowers also lost her job as a manager at the Shell station.
“Like everyone else involved in this disaster, they emerged alone with their clothes on and their phones,” read the description on the fundraiser.
The fundraiser is intended to raise money for the family to cover medical bills and other costs while Bowers is in the hospital and later looks for a new job. The family is accepting donations through the GiveSendGo fundraiser and through the First Baptist Church of Valley View, Valley View United Methodist Church and the town’s community center.
