Piedmont Fire Chief Andy Logan lost his house in Tuesday's tornado but said his family was safe in his storm shelter.
Piedmont Fire Chief Andy Logan is used to heading into a disaster to help save lives but on Tuesday night the disaster came to him as his entire house was wiped away in the tornado that damaged and destroyed nearly 100 houses in north Piedmont.
“We were in the (storm) shelter,” Logan said. “My wife was at work, so I had my two children, my mother and my neighbors and their two kids with us.”
Logan said he was in the storm shelter for nearly 15 minutes before the storm hit, which lasted a short while before the sounds outside began to calm. Logan told his family to wait inside the shelter while he checked outside and found his house lying in a pile of rubble.
“I took a look around and I came back in and said ‘it’s all gone, everything is gone,’” he said. “I expected to have a wall, or something. But it’s just stuff.”
The Logan family had lived in the house for 10 years before it was taken in the tornado, but Logan said he still feels fortunate.
“No injuries, everyone is fine, we are very blessed,” Logan said. “We are blessed. We are alive and we are healthy. There is tremendous tragedy not two miles from here.”
Further north the Falcon Lake subdivision was destroyed by the same tornado and two young children lost their lives.
As fire chief, Logan said he was eager to get into town and help with the search and rescue but knew he had to take care of his family. A fire engine arrived at the scene and the fire fighters assured Logan they would handle the situation.
“As the fire chief I got out and I knew my family was safe and I began to try and run the event,” Logan said. “But I very quickly realized that I was not going to be able to do that. (I told my crew) you guys are going to have to take this, I can’t do this. I had to detach myself, and I honestly do feel very bad about the fact that I couldn’t be more help, but I had to be here.”
In addition to the house, Logan’s city-owned fire chief vehicle was also totaled in the storm.
While Logan feels blessed despite losing most of his possessions, he was happy to find one thing in the rubble on Thursday.
“One of my little girl’s stuffed animals was one thing that was gone and we just found it,” Logan said.