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Arthur Finley was having a good time at a crawfish boil on Saturday night at a shop on Lovelady Drive in Plantersville.

No one had a care in the world until he heard something outside.

“All of a sudden this big puff of wind came through and hit the shop,” Finley said, smoking a cigarette while taking a seat inside a car outside what’s left of the shop. “Nobody heard a siren or anything like that.”

That was when a violent tornado came up from over the hill and struck the metal building.

Finley said he was huddled in the shop next to the owner, Dunk Pickering. Several others were attending the party inside. They all survived despite a couple of them going to the hospital for treatment and have already been released.

Pickering, however, did not survive. Another 82-year-old woman died when her mobile home located right behind the shop was struck.

“That storm had the power of hell,” Finley said.

As the storm was bearing down on Plantersville, Joy Posey, a resident who lives just north of Lovelady Drive on County Road 63, said her family was watching the weather when their phones went off for the tornado warning. They decided to get to their storm shelter, especially when their neighbors came running across the field with their pets.

“They were saying we’ve got to go now,” Posey said while surveying the damage. “So we got everyone into the storm pit. Their dogs didn’t want to go in, but we finally got them in there. We got our 96-year-old father in there too.”

Just after everyone entered the shelter,the storm finally hit.

“They kept saying we’ve got to shut the door,” Posey said. “Most every one was in the inner part of the shelter, but there were still a few standing on the steps coming down. The pressure just dropped. It’s just by the grace of God that we are here.

“The whole thing happened in five minutes,” Posey said. “I don’t know if it was really that long. Might have been shorter, but that’s what it felt like.”

She said part of the trailer landed on her 150-year-old pecan tree.

“That could have landed on our house instead of on the tree,” Posey said. “The Lord kept us safe.”