GARLAND, Texas — The National Weather Service says it was an EF-2 tornado that spun up in Garland Sunday, set its eyes on Murray Drive, and swallowed the roof of Tony Alfaro.
"All of this sheet rock kind of fell into pieces," said the 20-year-old, standing in the middle of what was his living room. "It first started kind of here and it was very, very small."
When the storm was done, the damage was huge, and his family's to-do list gets longer by the second.
"We have to deal with making sure the house is going to be OK, boarding up windows, doors that won’t close," said Alfaro. "Now we have to deal with this, this and that."
So it is frustrating that after all they've been through, the neighbors have to deal with so many of you.
"I had a line of four cars [in front of the house]. I thought it was just traffic trying to get through, but every single car took a picture," he said.
First come the storms. Then come the lookie-loos.
Across the street, Helen Abker, her husband Kurt and dog Jack watched the show from their porch.
"It’s almost like a perpetual traffic jam," she said.
It also makes it tough for the people who need to be here, like volunteers with chainsaws and power crews, to get through.
That's one of the traffic problems, but there's another. The piles of debris lining the streets are massive, and the city of Garland has begun stopping in neighborhoods to pick them up. But in some cases, cars are parked in front of the piles blocking access, so the mess can't be picked up. So if you’re looking for another way to help, stay home.
"Yeah, just stay out of here, at least for the time being," said Alfaro. "If you want to see our neighborhood come back when it’s rebuilt."
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