TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Madison Calhoun moved to Temple as a newlywed and expecting mother. Six weeks after her baby was born, a tornado destroyed her home.
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Calhoun, her husband, and their 6-week-old newborn sheltered in the bathtub as the storm passed over.
"We just sat in the bathtub and huddled over her and it felt like it was a, 30-minute long ordeal, but it was only, you know, on the ground, I think for 3 or 4 minutes," Calhoun said.
In those few minutes, the life Calhoun was building with her husband and newborn was instantly changed. Walking through the aftermath made it clear the family could not stay.
"There's tree limbs and all kinds of dirt and stuff inside of the house. So we started walking around more and we knew instantly, OK, like we can't stay here anymore. Like this isn't, we have to leave," Calhoun said.
For first responders, the obstacles during the storm were more than just physical. Officers lost communication with Bell County dispatchers at a critical moment.
"We lost all abilities to look up calls ourselves. What we refer to as self-dispatching, which is officers just going and handling a call that they see as pending without having to be dependent on a dispatcher, and the dispatchers were receiving hundreds of phone calls," Lt. Sheppard said.
Despite the chaos, officers remained on duty — even as some faced personal losses of their own.
"The officers are still, they're sworn to protect this community. So even amongst their own personal tragedies that they were experiencing, they still showed up," Sheppard said.
The department said it is now using lessons from the storm to strengthen its response to future natural disasters.
"We've learned from that. Being able to adapt that for the future, so God forbid we have an event like this again, we will be better prepared to respond," Sheppard said.
The Calhouns are rebuilding from scratch — and Madison said one thing was non-negotiable before she would agree to move back home.
"We have put in a storm shelter. That was my, non-negotiable to be able to move back home was to get a storm shelter because God forbid we're ever in this situation again," Calhoun said.
The tornadoes were categorized as EF-1 and EF-2. Close to 500 homes and businesses were destroyed.
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