Jacksboro, Texas, principal narrowly escapes tornado in harrowing video
A powerful tornado devastated a Texas city’s elementary school and high school campus — and sent a principal running for safety as a ceiling collapsed, intense new video shows.
Security footage released by the district shows the instant one of 27 tornadoes made a direct hit on March 21 at Jacksboro Elementary School and Jacksboro High School, where winds up to 150 mph ripped up fencing surrounding the football field and dramatically bent the goalposts.
Several students and staffers were inside the buildings when the tornado touched down, including elementary school principal Michael Qualls, who narrowly escaped as lights went out and debris started filling a hallway.
“Why God chose me to be in that situation at that time, I don’t know,” Qualls told KDFW.
The pulse-pounding clip also shows another gym on the campus filled with flying insulation and debris as the EF3 tornado swept through Jacksboro, a city of roughly 4,500 about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
Nine people were hurt and 90 homes were destroyed in Jacksboro in the aftermath of the tornado, officials said. No one at the schools of some 800 students was injured, according to KDFW.
Elsewhere in Texas, dozens of people were hurt and a 73-year-old was killed when a tornado swept through Sherwood Shores, some 105 miles southwest of Jacksboro.
High school staffers returned to the battered campus on Monday and classes resumed there a day later, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
The elementary school, which was more heavily damaged, has not reopened and students are taking classes at the district’s middle school and at nearby churches, the newspaper reported.
Contractors need additional time to prepare the elementary school campus for a “safe return” for students, superintendent Brad Burnett told parents in a letter Monday.
Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, signed a disaster declaration for 16 counties to help speed up recovery after the devastating tornadoes.
