TYLER, Texas — Tyler's historic Azalea Trails span 10 miles, but Holli Fourniquet with Visit Tyler says the tour starts in Joan Pyron’s backyard, the Pyron Garden.
“We usually have about 300,000 400,000 people that visit the trail total over the three weekends," said Fourniquet.
Pyron Garden is open for the pubic during the day, but was closed Tuesday night as strong winds barreled through the streets. The National Weather Service confirmed straight-line winds up to 100 miles per hour.
"Zero to 100, literally,” said Pyron’s neighbor Brigham Willis as he stood next to what was left of the 70-foot tree ripped from his yard. He had only been in his house for eight weeks since moving from Arizona when the severe storms came through Tyler.
“Arizona has monsoons but nothing like the rapid onset severe wind tornado like stuff,” Willis explained.
Willis lost power for 2 days and so did Pyron. Pyron remembers listening to the storm from her basement next to her gardener who was hiding out with her. With the power out, she was unable to close her garage door. This could've been a safety concern if her gardener didn't stay during the storm.
“I found out the next day he had a blow up mattress in his car. And he slept in my garage to protect me," said Pyron.
She worried her garden and hallmark in the community would be ruined, but her flowers maintained their place in her garden. The winds that were strong enough to uproot trees didn't move the flowers an inch.
"Everybody that knows me knows that I call this God's garden. And so the only thing I can think of is that he put angels over this yard to protect it,” said Pyron.
Forniquet said though the official spring flower trail event ended last weekend, the flowers are mostly untouched and here all season long.
"We've put it out that there's you know, damage in these in the Azalea District, that you're gonna see debris, you're gonna see down trees, there's going to be road closures and people are still coming,” said Forniquet.