HENDERSON COUNTY, Texas — Lake Palestine Resort goers and workers were in shock a day after Thursday's severe storms.
"I love a good thunderstorm, but this was getting bad and it was getting violent. It got violent real fast," resident Josh Trees said.
Although only minor injuries were reported, the storm was so intense that it had residents praying to see another day.
"I said, 'God don’t take me today.' I literally said that out loud, I’m like 'I don’t want to die today, don’t take me today.' It was horrible. The storm came on like so quickly. I’ve never seen a storm come on that fast," Trees said.
Trees recalled the damage happening in about 40 seconds.
"It tipped over, knocked out all the slides. Things were just flying out here -- branches from trees. Transformers like you saw the big ole fuse box transformers flying on the ground," Trees said.
The National Weather Service ultimately ruled the tornado in the Lake Palestine area was an EF-1 tornado
Many were forced to switch up their Memorial Day plans and some have had to relocate. The strong winds caused RVs to flip, roofs to collapse and more than 70 boats were damaged.
"A big weekend planned with live music, fireworks, and had a bunch of food prepped. All of that has gone to waste now. At the end of the day, we have to be thankful nobody seriously hurt and we can live to do another day," said Micah Wolfe, general manager of Lake Palestine Resort. "It was a white out as far as the hail and the wind was just blowing so hard you couldn’t see anything out the window."
Teams are working together to get the damage cleaned up as soon as possible.