Tornado hits new Hutto subdivision and damages several homes

HUTTO, TEXAS - A tornado devastated a Hutto neighborhood off Limmer Loop and County Road 119 Monday evening. 

Four homes under construction were leveled in Cottonwood Farms, a new subdivision. Residents told FOX 7 Austin several completed homes were no longer inhabitable because of storm damage. 

Michael Watson and his brother attempted to record the storm from their garage. Their Snapchat video captured the moment strong winds pushed the men through their garage door and into their home. 

They were pinned against a wall and clung to each other as their back sliding door was blown out. 

"Just didn’t want to let my brother fly out the back door. So, I kept thinking of the movie twister and seeing a cow floating around and that’s all I could think about was him floating around like a cow in the air," said Watson. 

The storm jammed a large piece of wood into the wall and was right above Watson and his brother, he said.

Nextdoor Carlos Mendoza huddled in a bathroom with his wife, mother, 15-year-old daughter and dog. 

"Just hoping the house would hold. Hoping that we would come out okay," he said. 

Down the street Kristie Thompson did the same with her two children, ages 5 and 7. 

"It looked like a dust storm. There’s like debris in there and you could feel it there was just all of a sudden just like this wave of energy just hitting the house," she said. 

Thompson moved into the home approximately two months ago. It was spared from the storm's path. 

"You’re just praying like ‘Okay God, just let it go by us. Just let it go by us,’ and thankfully it went by us." 

The Mendozas moved into their home just three weeks prior to the storm. 

"[The home] means everything to me. It is the biggest investment I’ve ever made. This is our dream home," said Mendoza. 

The storm pushed in a wall, pulled off siding, smashed windows and damaged their roof. 

"We came out of this unscathed, physically, I guess you could say. We can replace things on the house," said Mendoza. 

The Watson brothers and their roommate told FOX 7 Austin they will likely need to move out of their rental. The storm ripped off their roof.

"We got lucky," laughed Watson. "Watching the tornado like a bunch of fools."

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