‘Lord wrap your arms around me.’ Woman uses key fob to signal SOS after Texas tornado

The Ray Roberts Marina and RV park near Sanger took a direct hit from Saturday’s storm, destroying docks, sinking boats and flipping RVs. Three people were injured, authorities said.

“Right now as the sun comes up, we will begin assessing the damage. We know the boat houses are heavily damaged, all have lost walkways and most boats are damaged,” a post on the marina’s Facebook page reads. “We lost our fuel dock and offices along with our dock cat, Ginger. Our hearts are broken but we were watched over by our Lord and Savior last night. We are blessed and very thankful today. Prayers for those who weren’t as fortunate as us.”

The Denton County Office of Emergency Management said 24 trailers were destroyed, and three people were sent to the hospital. Two have them had already returned to clean up; one was seriously injured.

The office was distributing water and providing transportation to a shelter at First Baptist Church in Valley View. The Salvation Army arrived to provide meals.

Sherri Williams, who owns the marina with her husband, Bill, said they saw the tornado warning on their phones and went around the marina and RV park honking their horn and telling people to get shelter.

They got 15-20 people to shelter in the walk-in fridge of the marina restaurant, Williams said, but seven were in their RVs when the storm struck.

They had received a lot of food and water donations, said Cory Williams, son of Sherri and Bill. What they need now are flashlights, phone chargers and power generators. They have had no power since the storm hit.

Amber Bryan, 41, had lived in the RV park for a year. The tornado flipped her trailer and pinned her inside.

“Thank God, just got some bruises, nothing broken,” she said.

She used her key fob to honk SOS to let people know she was in the rubble.

“Everything happened so fast,” she said. “I just said, ‘Lord wrap your arms around me and my pets and get us through this.”

She got her three cats in their carriers before the storm hit, and they all came out OK, she said.

Janet Rucks, 66, was on the dock playing dominoes with her fiance when the storm hit.

“If we’d stayed on the dock, we wouldn’t be here, I imagine,” Rucks said.

They thought about riding it out, but her daughter called and told her the storm was coming toward them. They got in their truck and drove to their home in Mountain Springs.

Bill Little, 42, of Aubrey, purchased binoculars to search for signs of his boat in the rubble of the collapsed dock and marina.

“Goes to show you — got to take those tornado warnings seriously,” he said. “They get monotonous, but they’re for real.”

Sam Lee, 62, of Decatur, came to rummage through the remains of his brother John’s RV to recover his valuables. His brother is in New Mexico and unable to make it back.

“That’s his golf cart right there, and there’s another one that’s not his shoved inside his RV,” Lee said.

His brother’s RV was upside down about 100 feet from the spot where it sat before the tornado came through.

At least seven people were killed in the line of storms that moved from Valley View to Collin County.

Bryan Looper, 57, of Sanger, said he pulled two people out of the wreckage. He said he arrived on the scene early and had to clear trees off the county road.

“The firefighters said don’t move anything, but these folks were yelling, ‘Get us the hell out of here,’” he said.

He said he helped firefighters get Bryant out of her trailer by shining his light for them.