FARMERSVILLE, Texas — Esmeralda Solis is feeling many emotions days after strong winds ripped her home from its foundations.
She is thankful to be alive and grateful for the incredible support from her community, but she is also saddened to see the destruction of her family's mobile home.
"My dream, a big part of my life...just destroyed," Solis said through a translator, her church friend Pauline Fresnillo.
Straight-line winds took their clothes to a nearby tree. The strong wind left their mobile home and their little farm in pieces.
Collin County officials said the debris field was located a half a mile away from the mobile home.
Solis and her husband Adrian know this could all be very different for their family of eight if it hadn't been for the storm shelter Adrian, a welder, installed two years ago.
They lived in the mobile home with their four children and one set of grandparents. On Sunday, the grandparents did not make it to the shelter in time.
The family told WFAA the wind picked up the home and slammed into the grandparents, tossing them near County Road 697.
"All I could hear were her screams, but that's been in my mind," said Solis.
A Facebook fundraiser for the family says that the grandparents "suffered some wounds and broken bones." The grandfather is out of the hospital, with some fractures. The grandmother is still at Medical City McKinney.
This family has no insurance and so they really are starting from nothing. On Tuesday, WFAA saw a steady stream of people driving up to the property offering what they could to help.
People brought non-perishable food, water, and clothes. Fresnillo told us a non-profit named City on the Hill is organizing help for the family. The group is a collection of area-churches that volunteer time to help families in Farmersville.
"Politics are trying to tear everybody apart," said Travis Marine, a neighbor who arrived with his wife and son with some supplies. "Mother Nature don't care about that stuff. They tear up people's house whether you rich, poor, doesn't matter. People just need to help each other."
The Solis family is desperate to find the keys to the one truck that works.
Some pictures have been rescued, which is a huge relief for Esmeralda.
"Try to get a new house and start all over again," Solis responded when asked what's next.
On Tuesday, the chickens from their farm came back. That may be a sign that normalcy can, too.
To donate to the Solis family, click here.
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