Sadness in Saragosa

00116_s_r12ajclh3kn0116Around mid-evening the newsroom started hearing reports of a tornado touching down in the little West Texas town of Saragosa. Staff from the San Antonio Express-News was dispatched, driving through the night and arriving before dawn on May 23, 1987. Temporary lights were focused on the rubble of the Community Center that had taken a direct hit during a pre-school graduation ceremony. Townspeople dug furiously at the rubble but the death toll rose with the sun. Most of the town was wiped out. In the end 30 people died, 19 were buried on the same day.


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