PEARLAND, Texas – Cleanup crews were out and about in Pearland early Thursday morning, a day after a tornado touched down in the area and left quite a bit of damage behind.
Pearland police said a funnel cloud touched down near the 1900 block of N. Main around noon on Wednesday.
Crews worked all Thursday morning to clean up twisted debris and installations that were strewn out across the pavement in the area due to the storms.
A lot of the damage was done at a Chevron gas station, where workers spent most of the day using trucks to move most of the wreckage. The owner said he’s still relieved no one was hurt.
“It was so hard, so fast,” said Kas Tavoli. “I was trying to do an inspection and when I heard all the noise, I rushed back inside to hear how they were doing here. Both me and the employees ran inside a room just to take shelter.”
Other residents saw the wind rip a roof right off a nearby bike shop.
“I saw the metal roof of the building start peeling off and flipping in the air,” DeJuan Lyles said.
The metal roof flew half a block before landing in the Chevron parking lot.
“All I saw was the roof come off the Pearland Cycle building and land on top of the Chevron,” said Floyd Shepherd, who worked at the Jiffy Lube down the block.
The roof flew over a small Mexican restaurant, only causing minor damage, but leaving insulation spread in disarray all over the block.
“The restaurant shook. It was pretty loud. We were in shock. We didn’t know what was going on,” said Erendira Gomez.
Down the road at the Busy Bee Café, an employee said a tree fell on the restaurant’s roof.
“It sarted raining real hard. The winds kicked in, it looked like it was almost going sideways,” said Chris Landreville.
The storm hit during the busy lunch hour, but no one inside the Busy Bee – or the rest of Pearland—was hurt.
Crews from CenterPoint were still working in Pearland on Thursday to restore power. Tavoli said electricity wouldn't be restored at the gas station until Friday at the earliest.
