Tuesday tornadoes: A close-up look at the damage and cleanup in Grapevine, where people have ‘poured their hearts out’

Two tornadoes were confirmed to touch down in Grapevine on Tuesday — both EF-1s with winds of up to 110 mph. Here’s how residents are dealing with the aftermath.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — Wednesday morning, Mike Steele walked around his property, assessing its damage. 

“This is my neighbor’s carport,” he told WFAA, pointing to the structure now in his backyard. “It flipped all the way in the air and then landed — just missing my truck.” 

Steele told WFAA he’s a landscaper who had been renovating his rental property in Grapevine. He said he got a call from the crew working on his house Tuesday that a tornado — one of at least two confirmed to have touched down in the city, injuring at least five in the process — had likely hit his property. 

“It’s just a wake up, y’know, to love every day — and thank God for what we have,” Steele said.

Steele was not in Grapevine during the tornado, he said. He got held up in Keller dealing with his alarm company when he got word about the damage to his home.

“[That] actually delayed me because I was supposed to be eating over there at Waffle Way,” Steele said. “It’s just amazing how God has his hand on you and you don’t know it.”

Waffle Way is a decades-old, family-owned restaurant located two doors down from Steele’s rental. Along with Grapevine Mills Mall, Walmart and Sam’s Club, which all suffered damage in the storms, Waffle Way’s roof and awning were mangled and its windows blown out.

But thanks to a quick-thinking customer who saw the storm coming, everyone in the restaurant was able to rush to safety in the back of the building, avoiding injury.

“He started yelling, ‘Take cover! Take cover! Take cover!'” Waffle Way part-owner Natasha Thomp recalled of the moment, tearing up. “It was unreal… like an out-of-body experience. You don’t really know what’s going on. You don’t know what’s happening.”

Thomspon and her mother, Lynda Hawkins, said their priority right now is cleaning up the debris and getting their doors back open. 

In the meantime, they are so grateful for the help they’ve received.

“All the neighbors and the community have reached out and been a great community,” Thompson said. 

Added Hawkins: “People have just poured their hearts out to us and get us help. In the world we live in, it’s not always that way. But Grapevine is still that way after all these years.”

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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