Last Monday, a tornado touched down in Benbrook, Texas, causing severe damage to the Benbrook Lake Marina.
On March 21, the National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-0 tornado whipped through the city.
The marina’s owners are reaching out to the local community to ask for help with repairs.
A surveillance video shows the tornado lifting a metal awning into the air before tearing it apart. The roof landed on several boats and damaged the marina’s docks.
“It just got tossed up like a ragdoll,” Chandler Rogers, the son of the marina owner, told WFAA.
He mentioned that the tornado severely affected five boats, with some ending up underwater.
This is the second time a tornado has destroyed the Benbrook Lake Marina. The last time the marina suffered such damage was six years ago.
The marina has been family-owned for 20 years, and incidents such as Monday’s are hurting their bottom line.
Over the last week, the owners have been clearing away the debris of the damaged dock and lifting submerged boats out of the water. Rogers said that if significant repairs are not made, the marina will likely go out of business.
The family reached out to the local community to ask for assistance with repairs and launched a GoFundMe page to help with those costs. The owners estimate that repairs will cost more than a million dollars. As of March 28, the online campaign has raised $778 out of the $1,500,000 goal.
“I’ve been coming here since I was 5,” Rogers added. “Memories go back as far as I can remember being here.”
Although the Benbrook Lake Marina has been an essential source of revenue for its owners for the last two decades, it means much more than that to the Rogers family. The marina is nearly 70 years old and is considered a staple of the Benbrook community. It would be devastating to the family if it went out of business.
Rogers hopes that repairs can be made so that new memories will continue to be made for generations to come.
