Family emotionally picks up pieces after tornado destroys their home

By Dawn White

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    FROST, Texas (KTVT) — A pile of mangled debris is all that’s left of the place Annette Chandler and five of her family members called home.

“I am thankful and grateful, especially to the good Lord,” Chandler said. “I believe he’s the one who gave me that gut feeling to leave.”

Chandler is picking up the pieces of what was her home along County Road 3091 in Frost.

“I lost it, we came home, and then I really lost it,” Chandler said. “I’m still emotional, up and down. It comes in waves.”

Lots of hugs filled the property where the family made so many memories for decades.

“It’s just like ‘Twister.’ You come home to the aftermath. It’s very humbling and shocking. You think everything’s over, but you just have to start all over again,” Chandler said.

The National Weather Service confirms multiple tornadoes touched down in at least three counties Friday, including three tornadoes in Navarro County. Two of them were EF1 tornadoes with wind speeds more than 100 miles per hour. The third EF0 tornado touched down north of Frost. Some homes there are leveled with trees and metal lining the area.

What was Chandler family’s Frost home is scattered throughout their five-acre property starting with a door in the front, continuing to where the home originally was, and ending at the back of the property where a bedroom ended up.

That bedroom belonged to Chandler’s daughter, Tiffany Gainus, who also lived in the mobile home with her husband and two young children.

“We’ll eventually get a new house out here, and everything will be fine again,” Gainus said. “All of this can be replaced. As long as we are okay, that’s all that matters.”

“This property, this was my dad’s. He handed it to me before he passed away,” Chandler said.

Chandler’s dad lived in the home for 35 years, and she moved into it eight years ago after he died. The family found the two most precious things while sifting through the twisted rubble.

“I found my dad. He was in an urn. He made it,” Chandler said.

“I found my sister’s ashes, my little sister who passed away a few years ago,” Gainus said.

Chandler has a message for others who hear a tornado warning. She said she normally stayed at home but had the intuition to leave this time.

“If there’s a tornado in your area, it touches down, and it’s only 15 minutes away, leave,” Chandler said. “Please leave. Save your family.”

The family saved themselves, along with their two dogs. They now pray and remain grateful to be alive and start over again.

The family had no insurance on their home. Family and friends started two GoFundMe pages as they rebuild their lives from scratch.

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