“Struggle for Stability” | Pasadena family still recovering weeks after tornado destroyed home

PASADENA, Texas. It has been exactly four weeks since four tornadoes hit the Pasadena, Deer Park, and other areas of southeast Houston.

Eight members of the same family moved from home to one hotel room. They are still trying to figure out what’s next.

“The sound of everything around, the broken glass, it was terrible,” said storm survivor Crystal Thompson.

She said she held her child in the hallway with her husband and his mother when the tornado passed.

“Five minutes after we realized that it was heading towards us, it hit us,” Thompson said. “My mother-in-law and my husband cover for me and the baby, and he just screams.”

Their house, which they rented in Pasadena for six years, was destroyed.

“We could very easily have lost their lives that day,” Thompson said.

Fortunately, four of their five children were in school at the time.

Thompson said one daughter is still traumatized by what could have happened.

“She’s afraid to leave us,” Thompson said. “She said she was worried that we would die when she left school and it was very hard.”

After such events, emotional losses often occur along with physical damage. This is something that many other families are likely to experience – even weeks after a hurricane.

“I wish I could just rewind time and be back right now. But I can’t,” Thompson said. “Ordinary people can continue to live their lives while we are still fighting for stability.”

The Thompsons launched GoFundMe to help pay for what renter’s insurance doesn’t cover, as well as the cost of living until their recovery is complete.

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