Abby Peters huddled with her daughter, Veronica Bowers, and Bowers’ 10-month-old daughter in a closet when the EF2 tornado swept through Valley View in Cooke County.
The three made it out of Bowers’ house alive, but Bowers was seriously injured and is hospitalized, according to a fundraiser set up for the family.
Bowers was the manager of a Shell travel center at Interstate 35 and Lone Oak Road in Valley View. It’s where between 50 and 60 people took shelter when the tornado hit, hiding in bathrooms and the attached restaurant.
Sunday morning, the gas station was a mess of debris and rubble. More than 50 cars sat in parking spaces and next to gas pumps, under what used to be awnings. At least four semitractor-trailers were there, one turned on its side and another wrapped around a post that used to support one of those covers over the pumps.
The air around the station had a smokey, bitter aroma. Warped metal and disjointed building and sign parts screeched and moaned and clanked as they bent and swayed in the wind.
And not only did Bowers and Peters lose their homes and vehicles, Bowers lost her job as the manager at the Shell station.
“Much like everyone else in this disaster they only made it out with the clothes on their backs and their phones,” the description on the fundraiser read.
The fundraiser seeks to raise money for the family to cover medical bills and other expenses while Bowers is hospitalized and later looking for a new job. The family is accepting donations through the GiveSendGo fundraiser and through First Baptist Church of Valley View, Valley View United Methodist Church and the city’s community center.
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