Casey Sliwa watches family members ice skate in the snow at Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., Monday, Dec. 28, 2015.GARLAND, Texas – Jacqui Gordon spent Monday sifting through the debris that had been her home, searching for old family photographs – especially of her father, who died two years ago.
She and nine others were enjoying a holiday gathering when winds began to rattle her home in suburban Dallas. They all dashed into closets and suffered only bumps and bruises, but Gordon’s roof was torn away and her house destroyed.
“I just got divorced, and this is all I had,” she said.
With rain all day Sunday keeping people away, residents worked on a dreary and frigid Monday to salvage what they could, with the American Red Cross distributing items like tarps, rakes and work gloves to help them.
At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in the tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area Saturday. Snow from New Mexico through the Midwest, plus flooding in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois, added to the succession of severe weather events across the country in the last week that led to about four dozen deaths.