KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.com102 mph winds damage hotels and homes in Childress

102 mph winds damage hotels and homes in Childress

By Sarah Seeley

NewsChannel 10

Childress, Texas - People around Childress today are still waiting to get total damage estimates from last night's strong storms.

Laura and James Irog were just spending the night in Childress on their way from Jasper to Colorado.

Last night's wind gusts blew over the wall their hotel room at Childress Inn.  That's when Laura got trapped underneath.

"All I could tell him was get it off of me 'cause I couldn't," said Laura Irog.  "When he did, I knew."

She suffered a deep cut from the debris in the window in her thigh all the way to the bone.

She and her husband are both medics back home in Jasper.

"After 18-19 years as a paramedic, being on the other side of the fence [we were] just really needing some big help because this is just chaos.

They say they never knew the city activated the tornado sirens to warn of the high winds.

"We sounded them because we had the police officer out here whose unit was literally lifted off the ground and he called in [the strong winds]," said Bryan Tucker, Childress City Manager.

The Days Inn along 287 also sustained severe damage to visitors' cars and the hotel pool and lobby.

Residents in a nearby apartment complex are relocating tonight from wind damage to the structure of their building.

The Childress Inn owner and manager tells NewsChannel 10 he hopes to have his property repaired and back up and running in the next 10 months or so.