KATY, TX (Covering Katy News) – When a tornado sucked the front wall off the Bourbon Street Sports bar shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday, none of the five employees were injured. The customers were gone, and all five workers were at the back of the building when the tornado destroyed the front.
People of faith would call it a miracle; others would say it was a lucky coincidence.
The tornado did not suck them from the front of the building because they were in the back, cleaning up a case of broken beer bottles.
"My barback dropped a case of beer in the back corner, and everyone was helping him clean it up," Bourbon Street owner Doug Stockel said.
Stockel's employees called him at 2:49 a.m., saying a tornado sucked the front wall of his bar into the parking lot, but all five of them were physically ok. Additionally, the tables, chairs, and pool tables at the front of the bar were wet and dirty but otherwise unscathed.
It was a horrible experience, but the timing of events ensured that no one was badly injured.
"If it had happened half an hour sooner, we would have had customers in the parking lot," Stockel said.
Bourbon Street had no power, and the tornado ripped two of his four air conditioning units off the roof. Still, he's ready to reopen as soon as the fire marshall approves.
"I would be open now if I could," he said, as a clean-up crew vacuumed debris from the floor and cleaned dirt off the stools and tables.
"There was a lot of debris and dust inside the building but not much damage," he said.
But the front wall of his business was gone, replaced by a long row of plywood. Bourbon Street had no power, and only half of his air conditioning units remained on the roof.
Sockel said he could still serve customers, as his front doors were wide open and a cool breeze circulated through the bar, which was left darkened due to a lack of electricity.
Yellow tape closed the parking lot to the public as crews cleaned the mess, but they could not remove an air conditioning unit blown from the roof and dropped in the parking lot. That project would require a crane and a tractor-trailer truck.
"I have employees who want to return to work," Stockel said. However, that is not going to happen quickly.
Other Damage
Next door, the La Real Tortilleria Mexican restaurant was closed, but it had far less damage than Bourbon Street.
Across the parking lot, the Firestone auto repair shop remained closed. It had more damage than any other business. Employees were still awaiting permission to enter the badly damaged shop. Customers' cars were inside, and looking through the glass garage doors, they appeared unharmed, but the south end of the building was so severely damaged no one knew if it was safe to enter.
Matt and James Meinen were repairing cars across the parking lot at Southwest Car Care. Their facility was unharmed, but they had to wait until midday before power returned.
In the nearby neighborhood
Crews were replacing fences, cutting down trees, racking up debris, and inspecting roofs in the nearby Memorial Parkway neighborhood. It was messy but no one died.
"It could have been a heck of a lot worse," Stockel said.