Eight houses on the far north end of Washburn took a direct hit from a tornado Tuesday evening. The twister barely missed the Low Point-Washburn Elementary School, but 100 yards away it slammed into the home of 84-year-old Nelda Bevill.
Her son, Brian says she was looking out the east side of the house when she realized the tornado was coming from the west.
“She scurried toward the basement, even threw her walker roller aid to the side just in time to get on down the stairs to the bottom and made it just in time.”
Nelda’s late husband built the house in 1969 and they raised their family there. Nelda was not injured in the twister, but the house is likely a total loss.
Brian says the family plans to rebuild at the same location. Now he and his siblings are digging through the remains finding memories. “Most all of the family pictures were still on the walls even though all the windows were blown out, so we were able to rescue those and my Mom’s Bible. And a few license plates out in the garage that my Dad collected over the years."
While the Bevill family is working to recover family memorabilia, there was a lot that was new going on in the lives of Jason DeWalt and his family. The DeWalt’s moved into their house in Washburn five months ago. Jason DeWalt started a new job last week that allowed him to keep a company truck at home and yesterday he says his family lived through a tornado.
DeWalt says he and his family are okay but the house and truck are expected to be a total loss. “Got a company truck sitting on top of the house. Got a ‘69 Chevelle I’ve had since high school that doesn’t look like it will survive it. Everything else, blew the windows out of them. Yep, it looks like we’ll probably be car hunting in the next few days.”
The Low Point-Washburn Elementary School that sits just 100 yards from the most heavily damaged homes, still held classes as scheduled Wednesday.