Video: Storm tears through dog training facility in Leander

LEANDER, Texas - Folks in Leander are still recovering following some devastating storms Wednesday. The storm tore through a dog training facility, surveillance video captured the moments the storm blew open doors workers tried to keep them shut.

They worked around the clocked cleaning so they could be open the next day.

A storm which took many by surprise. “We thought somebody was coming in through the front door we looked to see who it was and the door swung open,” said Gerry Brown the owner of DePaw Dog Sports and Training Academy.

Surveillance video from DePaw Dog Sports and Training Academy shows Brown as well as another person trying to close a door which was forced open from strong winds. “We heard a big boom out here and we looked out and could see everything just blowing everywhere,” said Brown.

Wednesday’s storm was strong enough to make its way into their  building, pushing pasted multiple garage door entrances. “I thought we had lost the roof to begin with I thought the whole roof had peeled off the building and we were in for a huge process trying to get back to where we were,” said Brown

As this is a dog training facility, around 10 dogs were in the building when the storm hit.

“My first concern was for the dogs. We locked down the office area trying to make sure that those doors could not open without us knowing it,” said Brown.

A few minutes felt like an eternity for Brown as they waited out the storm.

Once the storm had passed and they could assess the damage, they found their garage doors were all dented and mangled. They had to nail them to the wall to prevent them from opening.

“It blew everything everywhere we had stuff that started off at the front of the building back in the back of the building we had insulation on the floor,” said Brown.

Water had drenched a lot of the inside, they spent most of the evening drying out the place. “We were in here a good 4 or 5 hours trying to get all that done,” said Brown. After getting about 2 hours asleep, Brown was able to reopen the next day the dogs acting as if nothing has changed.

“Dogs seem to be pretty resilient and they don’t seem to have any after effects for them,” said Brown.

While there’s still some work to be done following the storm, Brown said he’s glad no one got hurt especially the dogs. Brown said opening up as soon as possible was key because they are hosting a national dog event here this weekend.

Had the damage been more severe they may have had to cancel.