Cecilia Steel & Gerry Gesell Tornado Relief
Donation protected
Cecilia Steel & Gerry Gesell miraclulously survived tornado hit their ranch outside Christoval Texas on the morning of May 19, 2019 around 2 am, wreaking havoc and vanishing in an instant.
They had been watching the radar all night, fearing the worst. The door flung and Gerry went to close the door but this was not just another storm.
The door flew back on to Gerry and threw him against the wall. In the same instant somehow knowing it’s a tornado Cecilia ran for the bedroom closest calling for the dogs but they wouldn’t come. It was a whirlwind of noise and flying glass and debris for maybe 10 seconds and then calm. Gerry was lucky and was cushioned and protected in the hallway and safe from flying glass. She was safe and protected in the closest. Prairie Dog had stayed in her bed in the corner of the bedroom under Cecilia’s bedside table. She was safe and dry. She didn’t know where in the house Koala and the CMan went but they were ok, too.
A couple dogs were loose and ran in to the house. When they got to the outside kennels their heart sank. From the sight she thought for sure all of her dogs were killed. By a miracle, only one dog had a minor injury to her tail. . They had to extract Peaches and the puppies who were wedged under layers of chain link. The tack room faired the best and only lost some of the tin off the roof so that’s where they put the dogs who handled everything amazingly.
Next concern was what happened to the horses. They were turned out like usually and she was picturing dead and impaled horses hung up in fences attempting to get away. Thanks to the 4 wheeler miraculously coming out unscathed Gerry was able to locate all the horses completely untouched, calm as cucumbers. At that point, they had no idea the path of the tornado and spent the remaining hours of darkness being consoled by dogs and dreading the sight light would bring.
Unreal, surreal, terrible, horrible, amazing, humbling, all emotions when witnessing what Mother Nature is capable of and then trying to understand why a tornado with a width of only 100 yards traveling through thousands of acres of pasture had to target and destroy this beautiful old homestead. They will never understand.
But it could have been much worse and for that they are thankful. They would not have gotten through this day without the help of family, friends and neighbors.
Their ranch was insured by the owners but they still lost everything personal to them. The funds raised will go towards personal items needed, feed for the animals, dog kennels that were destroyed along with their trucks and anything else they may need to make them whole!
Please donate towards these amazing people, they are truly a miracle and we are blessed to still have them in our lives!
Here is a link to a Facebook post, more to come!
https://www.facebook.com/sanangelolive/videos/1191126267723982/?__tn__=kCH-R&eid=ARDr9R8EqSEJpuBbjG58hNv2vshi812Pve0kVlfG1e7Gq59OcXUNIHfGF5BHHs4tP5omu_-qickZyFHm&hc_ref=ARQ2bBFJLg5Dhgs3yR5OzhPc_ZHGeDiYnymiHnODXVjCtzPWth2MyOZDAbIp4zFCad0
They had been watching the radar all night, fearing the worst. The door flung and Gerry went to close the door but this was not just another storm.
The door flew back on to Gerry and threw him against the wall. In the same instant somehow knowing it’s a tornado Cecilia ran for the bedroom closest calling for the dogs but they wouldn’t come. It was a whirlwind of noise and flying glass and debris for maybe 10 seconds and then calm. Gerry was lucky and was cushioned and protected in the hallway and safe from flying glass. She was safe and protected in the closest. Prairie Dog had stayed in her bed in the corner of the bedroom under Cecilia’s bedside table. She was safe and dry. She didn’t know where in the house Koala and the CMan went but they were ok, too.
A couple dogs were loose and ran in to the house. When they got to the outside kennels their heart sank. From the sight she thought for sure all of her dogs were killed. By a miracle, only one dog had a minor injury to her tail. . They had to extract Peaches and the puppies who were wedged under layers of chain link. The tack room faired the best and only lost some of the tin off the roof so that’s where they put the dogs who handled everything amazingly.
Next concern was what happened to the horses. They were turned out like usually and she was picturing dead and impaled horses hung up in fences attempting to get away. Thanks to the 4 wheeler miraculously coming out unscathed Gerry was able to locate all the horses completely untouched, calm as cucumbers. At that point, they had no idea the path of the tornado and spent the remaining hours of darkness being consoled by dogs and dreading the sight light would bring.
Unreal, surreal, terrible, horrible, amazing, humbling, all emotions when witnessing what Mother Nature is capable of and then trying to understand why a tornado with a width of only 100 yards traveling through thousands of acres of pasture had to target and destroy this beautiful old homestead. They will never understand.
But it could have been much worse and for that they are thankful. They would not have gotten through this day without the help of family, friends and neighbors.
Their ranch was insured by the owners but they still lost everything personal to them. The funds raised will go towards personal items needed, feed for the animals, dog kennels that were destroyed along with their trucks and anything else they may need to make them whole!
Please donate towards these amazing people, they are truly a miracle and we are blessed to still have them in our lives!
Here is a link to a Facebook post, more to come!
https://www.facebook.com/sanangelolive/videos/1191126267723982/?__tn__=kCH-R&eid=ARDr9R8EqSEJpuBbjG58hNv2vshi812Pve0kVlfG1e7Gq59OcXUNIHfGF5BHHs4tP5omu_-qickZyFHm&hc_ref=ARQ2bBFJLg5Dhgs3yR5OzhPc_ZHGeDiYnymiHnODXVjCtzPWth2MyOZDAbIp4zFCad0
Organizer and beneficiary
Lisa Tichy
Organizer
Marshalltown, IA
Cecilia Steel
Beneficiary
