MAY 11, 1970

Dr. Pepper plant

May 11, 1970 will be a day that will live in my memory forever. I was just a kid living in Lubbock Texas, it was a day like many other in my short 10 years, but as evening came so did the changes. We noticed the sky, the color of it was unlike any that I had ever seen before, for that matter, I'm not sure that I have seen any like it since. It was the strangest color and look, and the air felt different, everyone could just feel that something wasn't quite right. In those days the early warning system wasn't much so we heard that a tornado had hit Lubbock, some say that several tornado's hit Lubbock. Homes were destroyed, lives were lost, everything changed that day.

Triple Decker under, over pass,
lowest level under water

People were trying to get out of the path of impending doom, so they drove their cars into underpasses, then the rain came so fast and the power went off that those in the lowest points could not get out and drowned.

Parts of the city lost power, some water, some parts of downtown were completely wiped out.

Motel

We had some friends that we went to church with who farmed, they showed up at our house and had lost everything, home, equipment, everything except their lives, they were in a storm cellar. I still remember the look in their eyes when we opened our door and they told my mom, "It's gone, it's all gone."

May 11, 1970, some things you just can't forget!

Great Plains Life Building, 1970

 The biggest of the tornado's hit the Great Plains Life building, 50 stories high, when it was built it was said to be tornado proof. The tordado hit it head on, and it stood, it twisted, but it stood, and still stands today.

We have already seen many tornado's this year, 190 in one storm alone. When you live through one, you never forget it. We need to pray for those who have gone through them this year, those who are being flooded, and those of us here in Texas who suffer from no rain and wildfires.

Lubbock Church