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JS: No, this was on, uh ... Bowie.
MM: Oh.
JS: 211 Bowie. Which wasn't that far from the warehouse. But by that time it was daylight and we went
out, got in the flatbed and drove over there. And I couldn't believe the devastation just in that short four
blocks. There was an old building right on the ... let's see that's West Main, about the 500, 600 block.
And it was a two-story structure, and all that was left it was a wooden struct-, well the front part was a
brick. But all that was left, the whole top story was just sitting on the bottom.
MM: Was it that orange building?
JS: Um-hmm. It was just ... I couldn't believe it. And the trees, those huge trees that were just like little
toothpicks just blown over. But we made it down to the lady's house.
MM: The hurricane was still blowing?
JS: Oh, ya. It wasn't as bad. It was still raining a little bit, but the, it had really calmed down considerably.
And we just ran, picked her up. Helped her into the truck and all five of us squashed into the truck and
we met the ambulance and then, so he wasn't sure that he could make it back to the hospital because of
all the trees and the water. So I said well ok we'll follow you and if anything happens, we'll kick
everybody out and y'all get her in the truck. But they made it, and uh ... we went back to the yard. Tried
to catch a little bit of sleep. But nobody really slept, I don't think. That was ... that's the first time I've
ever been through a hurricane.
MM: Ya.
JS: I don't think I want to go through another one.
[Laughter]
MM: Not like that.
JS: That'll hold me for several years I think. But ...
MM: Did you work down in Brownwood at all? Or go down that way?
JS: No, huh-uh. They really weren't letting ... just Jerry Traylor and Miller Casey were down there with
the Larch [sic]. And, I think mainly the Street Department was out there. But they needed us to stick
around in case they needed somebody to run the flatbed because all the dump trucks were trying to
help get people out of different areas.
MM: Did you go anywhere else in the city?
JS: Oh we had a call to go rescue a police officer that was, they thought when the call came in that she
was hurt. So we made it out ... that was down on Ward Road. And we made it. Somehow we made it
down 146, which was a disaster. And by the time we got there, another PD was there, so they just
loaded her up and took her off.
MM: How had she been hurt?