By KREIG KOHL
Special to the PRESS
Tragedy struck the community of Laguna Heights the night of Friday, May 12, when a tornado touched down and moved through the community late that night. Many residents of the town and the local trailer parks found their homes damaged, or worse, destroyed.
As seen on the Facebook Page, My Port Isabel, multiple structures were damaged and power lines were knocked out causing outages across the area. Highway 100 was shut down and travelers to SPI were advised to travel through Brownsville and then up to SPI. As of Friday, May 12 only one fatality was confirmed, and ten wounded were transported to Valley Regional Medical Center.
Cameron County Constable Norman Esquival Jr. made a statement to the community stating, “There is a lot of sad news here in the Laguna Heights area. A lot of people have been affected today by the weather, the tornado that touched ground here, in Laguna Heights. Many homes were damaged…people left without residence…they’re homeless, they’ve lost it all. There has been of course as you all know, one loss of life that’s been reported. Everyone else is accounted for.”
He continued to tell the community that if anyone affected was “hungry and needed assistance, to come down to Laguna Heights and grab some of the free food that was being made available. In the video, he shows the Salvation Army vehicle, from the McAllen Salvation Army, at the incident command center which was handing out food to the community, as well as some of the debris from the damage.
Of the aid being presented to the people of Laguna Heights, Norman said, “There’re so many different agencies that I just want to thank for being out here all day helping us out. Cameron County emergency management has been out here all day with the incident command and they’ve been doing work for you all.”
Norman then showed some of the damage down Van Buren Avenue, of a building with its roof torn off and some of the power lines knocked down, which crews were already attempting to get back up and running. He asked for everyone to keep all the victims in their prayers and asked for people who can help in any way to reach out to an agency near them to find out how best to assist.
One of the wounded residents is Armando Rangel, the maintenance man for Florence 1 Condominium on South Padre Island. When the tornado went through Laguna Heights, Armando and his wife Angela experienced the unfortunate loss of their mobile home and their pets. Both of them were injured and had to be taken to a hospital.
Armando’s employer, Pat Beckmeyer, said of Armando Rangel, “…He is an example for many. Armando works hard, outlasting many maintenance helpers who couldn’t keep up with his quality and quantity of work. Armando is always kind, friendly and available to help owners and renters in any way he can.”
When they first heard the news of the tragedy, Chacon, the management company for Florence 1, set up a Go Fund Me for Armando, which can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/
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