People in Grapevine share how they survived early morning severe storms

GRAPEVINE, Texas — Randy Popiel and his wife Michelle are counting their blessing even after suffering extensive storm damage to their newly remodeled home in Grapevine. They followed their family safety plan in case of a severe storm. They are used to severe weather bypassing their neck of the woods. But Tuesday morning was a different story for the couple. 

“It kind of sucked all the air out the house,” said Randy Popiel.

Popiel shared some of the damage outside his house during a walk-around tour where he pointed out both obvious and not so obvious damage. The storm lifted their greenhouse in the back yard but didn’t touch their oversized potted plants. His larger grill got tossed from the patio where one of two chairs stayed put. The 8-foot wooden fence collapsed and the lot next door the storm uprooted and knocked over large trees. 

From inside his house Tuesday morning, Popiel braced his family for what he believed was a tornado.

“I kind of thought all the windows were going to be blown out. They stayed in. Then I saw all the debris flying by and it was over in just a few minutes,” said Popiel.

“Things can be replaced, we are blessed because we didn’t get hurt,” said Michelle Popiel. 

In the few minutes the storm lasted, homes like Randy’s and nearby businesses took a serious hit. The Burlington Store at Grapevine Mill Mall suffered structural damage. The storm left a trail of damaged, blown-out windows at the Discount Tire store. Right next door, the storage company is cleaning up. Evacuations took place at Grapevine Middle School after teachers and students hunkered down during the storm.

“All of a sudden, we heard a rumbling,” said Sean Sidders.

The rumbling of the storm came as Sidders and three of his employees started their workday. After seeing what they described as a twister, they took cover in a restroom and what they saw afterward was hard to believe.

“All of our cars are damaged,” Sidders said. “The building next door here is actually gone. I couldn’t believe it.”

The storm damage at Michael Garen’s home is hard to believe too.

“It took part of the roof off my office over here,” Garen said. “I mean, it damaged all my stuff back here. I had a carport over there. It’s over in the neighbor’s yard.”

An Atmos Energy crew member told Randy Popiel it could be 48 hours before power is restored to his home. Randy said he took that news in stride, being thankful no one got hurt during the storm.