Denton County assists families at RV park, other areas with recovery following tornado

A young woman remembered the keys she put in her pocket just before Saturday’s tornado and used them to set off her car alarm so first responders would know where to find her as she lay pinned under her RV trailer just east of Sanger.  

She was one of more than 20 families who suffered the total loss of their homes in an RV trailer park near Lake Ray Roberts Marina just off FM 455. Several residents were taken to the hospital for injuries they received as their trailers were tossed by the tornado that struck after dark.

On Sunday, May 26, the young woman returned battered and bruised to find the last of her three cats, “Missy.” Nearby, the daughter of another resident, now hospitalized, cried out with glee when she found her father’s medicine amid the scattered contents of the crumpled trailers. 

Boat owners lined the road leading into the marina on the southwest end of Lake Ray Roberts to glimpse at the jumbled boat slips wrecked by the storm. 

Damage was reported to the Lake Ray Roberts Marina and RVs on the Sanger side of Ray Roberts Lake and at Isle du Bois State Park. Power outages, uprooted trees, and downed limbs were reported from west of Sanger across the lake along FM 455 into Pilot Point. 

The Denton County Office of Emergency Management assessed damage beginning at daylight Sunday to determine what services might be needed by Denton County residents. Soon, teams were bringing in water, a tent for shade, and restroom facilities to help the RV park residents as they picked through the rubble of their former lives. 

Just a few miles away, crews were working to repair downed power lines and remove overturned 18-wheelers. Just north of the border between Denton and Cooke counties, a walk-in freezer stood out among the remnants of a Shell station where a number of people had been trapped after the tornado tore through the building.  

Several Denton County residents with injuries were transported to Denton and area hospitals via ambulance and CareFlite. The number of people injured, and the types of injuries were not known as of 2 p.m. Sunday. 

United Way of Denton County has set up a donation site to collect funds to assist Denton County victims of the tornado.