VALLEY VIEW, Texas – Two women were driving near Valley View, Texas late Saturday night when a tornado crossed the road and they were recording video.
Although several people were killed in the tornado, two people survived the horrific ordeal.
Valenia Gil and Brenda Proctor Dance had just returned from a singer-songwriter show and had been posting on social media throughout the night.
“The shenanigans are about to begin,” Dance wrote on Facebook, posting a photo of her and Gill beaming outside the venue.
Just 15 minutes after the show ended, winds started to howl and rain lashed the car they were in.
At times, the sound of hailstones hitting cars could be heard.
“There’s (expletives) flying all over the place,” Gill says in the video.
I can see debris flying past the headlights.
“Look,” Mr. Dance said, “your ears are clogged.”
“My ears are clogged from the pressure,” Gill said. “Look at the sign shaking.”
Road signs were flapping wildly and visibility outside the window rapidly decreased, so Gill stopped the car on the road.
“Oh, my God,” one of the women repeated over and over.
“Brenda, we’re in the middle of a tornado. What do we do?” Gil yells. “The car is shaking.”
The tornado violently shakes the car, and the footage sways left, right and down as the women are thrown about.
“Your car is in the tornado, Brenda,” Gill yells, the footage blurred with motion. “There’s nothing we can do.”
“Cover your head,” Danse tried to talk her down. “Cover your head.”
Watch as the wind sounds like a jet engine as debris flies past cars. Watch as the wind knocks over utility poles and lights flash across the road.
“I know my car was hit,” Gill said after a moment. “I’m still shaking. My ears are clogged.”
The wind had died down a bit, but was still strong.
“I get it, I get it,” Gil said, his voice trembling with emotion. “I don’t want to go anywhere yet. I’m still shaking, the car’s still shaking.”
They hear sirens and emergency vehicles behind them, and as a car passes them, its headlights reveal downed power lines across the street.
“Are they going?” one asked in surprise as the car continued down the street.
A few hours later, Dance posted on social media: “We are back and now I’m feeling so much pressure I have a headache…so grateful we were actually able to drive off.”
Gill posted that this was her first tornado.
Dance is GoFundMe To help Gill get her car fixed, “She is disabled and has minimal responsibility for her car because she is on a fixed income.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the long-distance supercell traveled about 50 miles and spawned tornadoes, forcing him to declare a state of emergency for four counties.
Seven people were killed, including two children.
The NWS gave the tornado a preliminary EF-2 rating with maximum wind speeds of 135 mph.
