VALLEY VIEW, Texas – Two women were recording video late Saturday night when a tornado crossed the road they were driving near Valley View, Texas.
The twister went on to kill several people, but the pair survived their harrowing ordeal.
Valenia Gill and Brenda Proctor Dance had just left a singer/songwriter show, and had been posting on social media all night.
“Let the shenanigans begin,” Dance posted on Facebook with a picture of her and Gill outside the venue with big smiles.
Just 15 minutes after the show, wind screamed across the car they were in, blowing rain sideways.
Every so often, you could hear hail pelting the car.
“(Expletive)’s flying everywhere,” Gill is heard saying in the video.
Chunks of debris are seen flying past the headlights.
“Look at it,” Dance said. “My ears are popping.”
“My ears are popping, too, from the pressure,” Gill said. “Look at the sign shaking.”
The road signs were seen flapping wildly and visibility out of the window quickly got worse. Gill stopped the car on the road.
“Oh my God,” one of the women repeated over and over.
“We’re right in the middle of the tornado, Brenda. What do I do?” Gill yells. “The car is shaking.”
The tornado rocked the car so violently, the video wildly shifts right, left and down as the women are jolted.
“The car, we’re in it (the tornado), Brenda,” Gill yells as the video goes blurry from the movement. “I can’t do anything.”
Cover your head,” Dance tried to talk over her. “Cover your head.”
The sound of the wind picked up to sound more like a jet engine as debris flies past the vehicle. Take a look at the power flashes lighting up the roadway as the wind disassembles the power poles.
“It’s got my car, I know,” Gill said after moments. “We’re still shaking, my ears are popping.”
The wind ticked down a notch but was still violent.
“Okay, okay,” Gill said with emotion shaking her voice. “I don’t want to go anywhere yet. I’m shaking, the car’s still shaking.”
The sirens or emergency vehicles can be heard in the background. A car pulls around them, and they can see in its headlights that a power line is down across the street.
“Are they going,” one asked, shocked as the car continued down the street.
Hours later, Dance posted on social media: “We made it back, feeling like I have a pressure headache now… so thankful we were able to actually drive away.”
Gill posted that this was her first tornado.
Dance set up a Go-Fund-Me to help Gill with car repairs, “She is disabled and only has the minimum liability on her car due to being on a fixed income.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot said that a long-track supercell traveled about 50 miles, spawning tornadoes and forcing him to make emergency declarations for four counties.
Seven people died, including two children.
The NWS gave the tornado a preliminary EF-2 rating with winds up to 135 mph.
