Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 19

Austin American-Statesman TWISTERS' TRAIL OF HEARTACHE Thursday, May 29, 1997 A19 After the winds, upheaval roars through Jarrell BRISKET ,1 "mTWT ti rmrr-TMii-ni SAUSAGE RIBS "CHICKEN 1 I his wife and Lids escaped to safety. Wednesday he was upset because authorities wouldn't let him back onto his property. "They said they don't want people stealin' your stuff, but I told them there's nothing left to steal." Arnold said he had 15 cattle. Tuesday night when he visited his property, he says, he found some of the animals had been skinned by the storm. "It took all the hair off the cows, the ones that I've seen so far." He added he had heard reports of cows "blowin' in the air." "I thought I was gonna lose my house," said Joe Hoes, who owns Joe's Country Bar-B-Q with his wife, Louise.

Hoes had good reason to think he would lose his home. At about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, while he watched from the back porch of his rock house, he saw the twister break into two sections not far from his yard. At the time, he was standing with his friend, Gonzalo Berrios. "I was scared to death," Hoes recalled.

"Yeah, Gonzalo said my eyes were about this big," he added, forming a large ring with his thumb and index finger. Part of the twister headed north, Continued from Al Double Creek Estates. Jarrell is one of those Texas towns where 1 everybody knows everybody else. "I think the trouble with living in a small town like this one is that you know all the victims," said Priscilla King, her eyes welling up. She was working as a volunteer in the high school auditorium, handing out sandwiches.

She has a daycare center near here, and on Tuesday the kids-were hiding under the tables. With 23 people unaccounted for, hugs and tears were common, as were descriptions of the horror of the twister. There was talk of loss, of debris, of grief, even talk of fiy- ing cows. "My house. No more.

Gone," Fred Arnold said. He says his house was the first to be hit by the tornado, which touched down about 4 p.m. "There's one wall left. The south wall is left. The north wall is gone.

Just the garage is left That's it." 'God blessed us' i Arnold, who does glass work, was coming home from work when the storm struck. He says i Louise and Joe Hoes, owners of Joe's Country Bar-B-Q in Jarrell, cooked barbecue for people who needed it Wednesday, repaying kindnesses they received in 1989 when a tornado badly damaged their house. John KelsoAA-S lucky. In the 1989 tornado that destroyed Jarrell, Hoes' home was damaged so badly that he had to bulldoze the remains and rebuild. He had no insurance.

Friends and strangers helped him rebuild. Tornado's oddities emerge f4- It. I Good Samaritans abound So on Wednesday, Hoes was returning the favor by barbecuing for folks who might need help. "I'm just getting some meat ready to take up to the school, for whoever needs that," Hoes said. "We will help them as much as we can, 'cause we know what it's like." There was no shortage of good Samaritans on Wednesday.

Boy Scouts from Troop 324 of Taylor and Granger brought groceries for those in need. "We've got about 20 dozen eggs and a couple dozen tacos," said Bob Scarborough, assistant troop leader. Later Wednesday, the same Boy Scouts lugged donated boxes of diapers into the high school auditorium. "We knew a lot of 'em down there (in the subdivision), so we came to see if we could help with the search party," said Jerry Fuller, who lives a few miles from where the storm touched down. He and his brother, Vernon, were near the scene of the disaster at 7:30 Wednesday morning.

A few minutes later they were sitting in the back of a pickup, waiting to be taken inside the cordoned-off area so they could assist in the search for the missing. in the 4. Some told harrowing tales about how they had outrun the tornado. When the storm arrived, Randy Denson, 28, floor installer, was sitting in his cousin's doublewide. There were nine people in the trailer, including David Rhea, Den-son's cousin.

Denson says the doublewide was destroyed by the storm. "We sat there and watched the tornado for 10, 15, 25 minutes, something like that," Denson said. When the storm got too close for comfort, the group decided to make a break for it. All nine people hopped into two pickups and took off down the road toward Florence. Denson recalls that David Rhea's brother, Royce Rhea, also known as Chunky, hollered, 'Grab the beer and let's Couldn't leave the beer Denson doesn't recall how fast he was driving as he maneuvered the pickup lickety-split away from the twister.

But the fact that he could see it in his rearview mirror prompted him to step on it. "I was gettin' on it, 'cause I had to hit the brakes when I was sliding in the corners," Denson said. "I just wanted out of there." rabble Creek neighborhood. The storm also caused substantial damage to nearby businesses, including Blockbuster Video, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers and US Rentals. At least seven people were hurt at the Albertson's, with two suffering major head injuries, city officials said.

Two vehicles whose occupants have not been found remained in the market's parking lot Wednesday. Electricity has been restored to the city except for portions of the Cardinal Estates and Buttercup Creek neighborhoods, city officials said. All roads were open Wednesday, but police were limiting access to damaged areas. Bill Barron, an American Red Cross spokesman, said the aid group will distribute emergency vouchers today to Cedar Park victims for items such as clothes, food and baby supplies. The group will be at Faubion Elementary School, 1209 Cypress Creek Road, from 1 to 6 p.m.

Barron said vouchers will be available for several days. The rest of Williamson County received mainly heavy rains and some wind damage. 2 die in Travis County In Travis County, many residents spent Wednesday putting their homes and lives back in order. Twenty miles west of Austin, deputies stood guard at roads leading to sites along the heavily wooded hills near the Bee Creek area of Lake Travis, where an estimated dozen homes were ripped from their foundations or damaged. Kevin Hielscher, 25, a Navy veteran and student at Austin Community College, was killed when a tornado scattered his mobile home through the trees off Hazy Hills Drive north of Texas 71.

His body was found about 125 yards from the spot where the home had stood. The area of the county where most of the damage occurred lies north of Texas 71 near its intersection with FM 2322. Crews from Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. and the Lower Colorado River Authority worked steadily under sunny skies Wednesday to restore phone service and power. Larry Mobley, assistant chief of the Pedernales Emergency Services District, said all of the residents in the homes that were severely damaged have made temporary living arrangements with friends or relatives.

Bennie Fuelberg, general manager of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, said the 320 customers still without power Wednesday are expected to have it back by this morning. The customers are in the Paleface area of western Travis County, where 30 poles had to be rebuilt after being hit by twisters. In Austin, the body of a 38-year-old woman was pulled from Shoal Creek at White Rock Drive on Tuesday night. The cause of her death was accidental drowning, according to a preliminary ruling from the Travis County medical examiner's office. Her identity was not available pending notification of American-Statesman staff writers Jerry Mahoney, Bob Banta and Claire Osbom contributed to this report.

Hoes said, but the larger section' rumbled across the interstate toward the fated subdivision. In either case, it left Hoes' place alone. "God blessed us, that's all I know," he said. "God blessed us." Eight years ago Hoes wasn't so community pull together for the victims. "The people are just reaching out to each other," she said.

Duckett said she'll ask the City Council at a meeting tonight to waive building permit fees for residents who rebuild their homes. The meeting is planned for 6:30 p.m. at the Cedar Park Library, 550 Discovery Blvd. Meanwhile, Williamson County Judge John Doerfler announced Wednesday that a fund has been I A A saved Bible here, a crushed doll collection there; I unpredictability is halbnark of twister By Diana Dworin American-Statesman Staff GEDAR PARK A block from the rubble of Joe and Caryl Simpson's home in Buttercup Creek, a neighbor found the couple's tattered white Bible in his front yard with their marriage license tucked safely inside. Soon after, the Simpsons found another keepsake Wednesday among the splintered plywood and loose shingles at their property on Sycamore Street: a Sunday school painting by 3-year-old Bo, one of their four sons.

Written beneath the picture of bright blue droplets is a child's version of a verse from I the Book of Jeremiah: "God sends the rain." The two discoveries coupled with the family's survival from i Tuesday's devastating tornado are miracles, said Caryl's mother, Wanda Willms, who flew in from Oklahoma to help. When the twister ripped I through the Simpsons' home, the family took refuge in the utility closet. After the storm cleared, it was the only room of their home "left standing. "I was just thinking about my wife, the boys and the dog," Joe Simpson said as he sat in his dri-j veway and took a break from clear-i ing the debris. "That was the only thing on my mind then." I Across Williamson and Travis I counties, people like the Simpsons are picking up after the storm, I which left 27 dead in Williamson County and two dead in Travis County.

Hundreds of people were I without homes. In Buttercup Creek, at least 62 of the neighborhood's 1,550 homes sustained damage ranging from broken windows to destruction. Cedar Park, where 20,000 people live, damages to homes and businesses could total between $50 million and $75 million or more, I estimates Cedar Park Mayor Dorthey Duckett. F.byor sees fee waiver Storm victims in Buttercup I Creek spent much of the day hauling away their furniture in rented I trailers and searching for vacant "storage space to keep their valuables. They waited for insurance claims adjusters to inspect their "homes, and they fastened plastic tarps across their sagging roofs.

Many victims picked through their yards and homes sifting through loose pillows of pink insulation, broken dishes and light fixtures in search of irreplaceable mementos, such as family portraits and baby shoes. The scavenges felt surreal, some said. "It's like I'm waiting for the credits to roll at the end of the movie," said Dustie Shelton, 15, as she put her family's belongings in boxes. Across the street from Shelton, 10-year-old Nachele Groomes was caring for her collection of porcelain dolls, "some of which were broken or trapped beneath a heavy Wal-Mart delivers water to Jarrell residents Wednesday. Boy Scout Mark Scarborough, 12, of Troop 324 in Taylor and Granger helps Jeannette Tom LankesAA-S Anderson, left, unload the water.

Bruce Rose, right, of Georgetown helps carry water; he returned because he remembers the 1989 tornado. 7 SL "aJ il 1 Tom LankesAA-S Maria Isabel Hernandez holds her 3-month-old daughter, Maribel, while her 5-year-old son, Jimmy, sorts through clothes at Jarrell High School, where a shelter, food supplies and clothing are available. i i bookshelf in her second-story bedroom. Next to her room, where a guest room used to be, the roof and the red-brick facade had crumbled into piles along the driveway ''People today have been bringing parts of our photo albums back to us," said Michele Groomes, Nachele's mother. Duckett, who viewed the city's damage Wednesday from a helicopter ride with Gov.

George W. Bush, said she's disturbed by the devastation but thankful to see the Tom lankeVAA-S Gov. George W. Bush talks with reporters Wednesday in Jarrell, where he met with tornado victims at a shelter after touring the area in a helicopter. While in Jarrell, Bush signed a proclamation declaring a disaster, which should result in aid agencies arriving today.

set up for the county's tornado vie- After arrell, Cedar Park was tims. Deborah Hunt, the county's the area hit hardest by the storm, tax assessor-collector, will accept The tornado blew through the donations at the area's four tax of- FM 1431 and U.S. 183 area, touch- fices, located in Round Rock, Cedar ing down at the Albertson's su- Park, Taylor and Georgetown. permarket and in the Buttercup i "a n..