KINGSBURY, Texas – Clint Murphy took it all in as he surveyed the damage Tuesday left behind by a tornado that tore through his RV and his father’s home outside the Guadalupe County community of Kingsbury.
“It’s pretty emotional,” Murphy said as he went through their belongings scattered hundreds of feet across their property.
Murphy wasn’t home when the tornado struck, but his 70-year-old father, who is immobile, was.
Murphy described the moment his neighbors found his father after the damage was done.
“They walked around the corner here. He was sitting on the edge of that bed smoking a cigarette. He was sitting there (and he said), ‘Took ya’ll long enough. ‘Bout time ya’ll got here,’” Murphy said.
Murphy doesn’t understand how his father wasn’t hurt.
“No, not a scratch,” Murphy said. “And I guarantee you, he was laying there praying. I guarantee you that.”
Those prayers were answered after the home’s roof collapsed and most of the walls were ripped off.
“He said the roof fell on him and then they said it lifted off of him,” Murphy said. “It hit him and lifted off of him.”
His whole living room is gone.
All the stuff stored in his shed was untouched, but the shed itself was sucked up onto the house and into a tree.
Several kayaks were left scattered across the property and Murphy’s RV he purchased just a year ago was destroyed.
Despite the devastation and close call Murphy is staying positive. He said they are blessed and all they can do now is clean up and rebuild.
“It’s tough, you know. You have a rough beginning, you smooth it out. As soon as you get ahead they knock you down. You just gotta keep getting up,” he said.