SAN ANTONIO – What was supposed to be his last day of living at a Northwest side apartment complex instead provided Jerry Diaz with an unexpected first.
A tornado tore through the Oasis apartments Wednesday morning, lifting the roof off a building at the complex, located near UTSA Boulevard and Utex Boulevard.
“The whole 21 years I’ve been alive, never seen a tornado in my life,” Diaz said, as he surveyed the damage the violent storm did.
Although Diaz lives in a building toward the back of the apartment complex, the front of the property took the biggest hit.
Still, the tornado dropped debris throughout the complex, uprooted trees and twisted metal carports as if they were made of aluminum foil.
Diaz said he initially had been sleeping when the storm hit but quickly jumped out of bed.
“I literally felt that the whole apartment just started shaking,” Diaz said. “I come out the door, we all come out. We saw a tornado going that way.”
Diaz was set to move out of the complex Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the path the storm system took was directly toward The Rim, the area where he planned to move.
In another building, John Rodriguez said he didn’t move at all.
The minute he heard the tornado warning, he hunkered down in his bathroom for safety.
“I took shelter immediately. I took warnings,” Rodriguez said. “My main priority was to get my dog safe, and so far, she’s ok. She’s scared to death right now.”
Along with the debris were pieces of people’s lives.
There were pages of what appeared to be class notes scribbled by UTSA students who live at the complex.
There were no injuries reported from the tornado.
Diaz said while he feels for his neighbors whose homes were damaged, he is glad to have survived in one piece.
“We need to be grateful by God. We’re alive, our apartment’s good, and our car’s good,” he said.
Crews from various departments with the City of San Antonio had moved into the complex within just a few hours and started clearing out some of the larger debris.
Repairing damage and recovering from the storm could take a bit longer.
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