CROCKETT, Texas — Cleanup efforts across East Texas were underway on Thursday as residents continue to pick up the pieces from the severe storm that rolled in Wednesday night. Parts of East Texas dealt with hail and even strong winds leaving multiple homes and buildings damaged.
In Crockett, co-owner of Davy C's Pizzeria Jeremiah Silsby says the storm felt like a hurricane blowing into town.
"It was it was crazy," Silsby said. "When I would look out the window the trees look like rubber bands like there was no stiffness to them at all."
On Thursday morning, Silsby and his wife noticed their entire area was without power all night. Leading them to move their pizza ingredients into coolers and start cooking at 6 a.m. He said they didn't want his product like pizza dough to expire and lose his assets and money.
"Generally the power is back on when we wake up so when it wasn't we were really surprised," Silsby said. "We were sitting here wondering, what are we going to do?"
It wasn’t just southside of the city that was impacted with flash flooding, wind damage and fallen trees. Most of downtown Crockett was still without power Thursday afternoon. Building windows were blown out and one building had its entire ceiling peeled off into the street.
"We had flash flooding all through town," said executive director of the Crockett Area Chamber of Commerce Liza Clark. "There was water that was mid car level and there were several rescues that had to be made."
Captain of the Crockett Police Department Blake Gates said flash flooding wasn’t the only issue they had to deal with Wednesday night.
"We're also assessing all the trees that are down and we're trying to prioritize getting the ones that are blocking roadways, people's driveways, and things like that taken care of first," Gates said.
A clear image where you could see multiple trees damaged was at Davy Crockett Memorial Park. Multiple powerlines were damaged by fallen tree limbs and several softball fields fences were pushed over by the strong winds.
By Thursday afternoon Davy C’s Pizzeria had their power back on. They continued to offer their "deep discounts" all day since they had to serve a limited menu and make sure their ingredients didn't spoil.
Multiple residents said they are glad to have avoided a tornado as they had just recovered from one in March 2022. The Crockett Police Department said they will continue to help any residents in need. They ask that residents visit the city’s Facebook page to take a damage survey and find out where you can drop off your tree limbs at no charge.