The Howe Enterprise was informed on Wednesday that an article published in 2016 was a finalist for the Hugh Aynesworth Award from the Press Club of Dallas. The article was entitled, “EF1 tornado; EF5 community”, written in Volume 53, Edition 50, May 5, 2016, after the twister ripped through Howe late on a Tuesday spring night.

The nominated front page article (click the photo for the edition).

The article was submitted in March of 2017 and has made it to the final two in the “Weekly Newspaper” category with a South Texas weekly publication. An awards dinner will be held on Nov. 30 at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas where winners will be announced for each category. Those categories include:

Daily newspapers – 3 circulation groups
Television stations – 3 market areas
Radio stations – 3 market areas
Weekly newspapers
Magazines
Digital news sites

EF1 tornado; EF5 community

On Tuesday night as Howe was getting ready for bed, smartphone apps started buzzing for local residents to take shelter immediately. Howe has not seen a destructive tornado in 45 years when a northwestern traveling twister destroyed homes in Howe on March 12, 1971.

This Texas tornado was on a different course than its 45-year-old predecessor, traveling northeast at 95- 100 miles per hour and was classified as an EF1. An EF1 tornado is considered a weak tornado, but don’t tell that to the Calhoun family on Ponderosa Rd, or the Clements family, or Linda Rae on Stark Lane. Between 1950 and 2014 in the United States, 222 people have been killed by EF1 tornadoes, and 21 have been killed by EF0 tornadoes. Even the weakest tornado can kill, but fortunately for Howe there were no fatalities.

Gene Marshall, a truck driver making his way through Howe had his truck parked across from Howe High School. The tornado picked up his truck and threw it across the road which pinned him inside. Marshall said he only had time to sit and pray. Before the storm hit, he took a ‘Zapruder shot’ of the EF1 that would later take out his truck and so many houses.

Howe High School was damaged enough to have A/C units blasted from the top of the buildings which created holes above the gymnasium and other areas. This caused Howe ISD to cancel school for Wednesday and Thursday. To go along with the damage to the structures, power was out from Tuesday night until approximately 7 pm on Wednesday evening.

The heaviest damaged areas were the Tapia home on Smith Road just west of Summit Hill and on Stark Lane in northeast Howe.

“When mother nature comes, you can’t do anything. When it comes, it comes and you can’t do anything about it,” Jose Tapia told CBS 11.

Maria Tapia was hospitalized with a back injury just after the tornado struck the home but was cleaning up the property the following morning. Her sons Marcos and Antonio were scared Tuesday after the storm but were enlightened to tell the story of how they saved their six puppies that were under a woodpile.

Terry and Terri Calhoun’s home was also one of the worst. “All of a sudden you heard the pop pop pop and then the suction started and my husband grabbed me,” said Terri Calhoun.to ABC News in Dallas. ”

Local television, DFW television and even national TV crews were in Howe to cover the story. What they found was that the story wasn’t so much the destructive damage of the tornado, but the love and support from the community members that helped those that were in need.

Immediately after it was announced that Howe had suffered significant damage, the Howe Church of Christ became a “command post” and donated items started to pour into the church. Howe Church of Christ Pastor Toby Soechting said that as of 8:00 am Wednesday morning there had been no real need for shelter for local families. However, emergency relief and work crews had been at the building since early that morning and continued to use the church building for various matters (meals for crews, communication, etc).

While the local Church of Christ was preparing for the worst, the community was giving their best. Howe ISD Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Zack Hudson had his athletes and many other students on Stark Lane cleaning up the debris from homes. Arriving at 7:30 am, Hudson found seven or eight Howe students helping people that they didn’t know.

“It’s a sad situation. You see some of these people that you go to church with and you work with – it’s a sad situation,” said Hudson on NBC News of Dallas. “We went house to house – about 30 of us at a time with chainsaws and trailers and tried to put some normality back into their lives.”

Four individuals were taken to a nearby hospital including one driver with serious injuries after a tree uprooted and landed on her car.

Volunteer workers, such as Howe Bulldog junior football player Mike Helpenstell, continued to help on Stark Lane. “This is my
hometown. I’d do anything I can to keep it together.”

Even middle schoolers such as Tate Harvey was on-site working to help those in need. “I think it’s important for people to come out and help the community,” said Harvey to KXII.

Some people think that you can’t do as much in small towns – as much as other big towns can do – but we’ve really seen our small town come together and we’ve shown you ‘Howe’ we do it,” said Catherine Honaker to KXII.

Howe Superintendent Kevin Wilson also told the local TV station that it’s a testament to the Howe community and that the locals have each other’s back.

Speaking of back, the backbone of the entire situation were the local churches and the Howe Church of Christ in particular. FBC Howe canceled Wednesday night services and took their group to help clean up and provided Gatorade for workers. New Beginning Fellowship worked with FUMC to coordinate deliveries of food and drinks and supplies to the work area. Kings Trail Cowboy Church set up a “General Store” area near the middle of the disaster area on Stark Lane. The shuttle crews of were delivering sandwiches, water and everything that workers and tornado victims might need. The majority of the items came from the Howe Church of Christ who had ladies working full staff trying to prepare meals and take in donated items. Over 200 and maybe even 300 sack lunches were made both Wednesday and Thursday. A representative from the church said that people from all over the area came to see what was needed to provide the meals. Individuals came from Van Alstyne, Tom Bean, Sherman, and elsewhere. Some of the people from out of town even stayed and helped make the lunches. Of course, the church had no power on Wednesday as did the rest of the city, so Pastor Wallace Rains of New Beginning Fellowship brought a generator to the church across town so that the work could get done. The deliveries were organized by Danny Watson and Darrin Savage.

People brought enough food and the ladies made enough sandwiches that they had too many left over and ended up taking them to the crisis center.

During the relief efforts, many businesses stepped up and offered to help. Lowes donated boxes of tarps for the houses, boards, lumber, hammers, nails, etc. Magni-Fab delivered four dozen work gloves. Douglass Distributing brought a truckload of Subway sandwiches and gas cards for the generators. Walmart sent two volunteers door-to-door to get a list of immediate needs in which they delivered. Walmart delivered chainsaws, 2-cycle oil for chainsaws, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, towels, wash cloths and sheets. Tyson Foods is making a contribution along with Walmart to a fundraiser that is in the works for the immediate future. Abby’s Restaurant will have an $8 spaghetti dinner that will go towards relief efforts on May 11 from 5 pm – 8 pm. T-shirts can also be purchased as a fundraiser. FUMC has set up an account that will house the tornado relief funds.

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Hugh Aynesworth has been a journalist for almost 70 years, plying his trade in newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting.

He is perhaps best known, as the title of his book says, as a Witness to History, because Aynesworth is the only person known to have witnessed all three events between Nov. 22 and Nov. 24, 1963 – the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the capture of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theater, and the fatal shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby beneath Dallas Police Headquarters.

Aynesworth’s diligent and tireless efforts to determine whether there was any truth to all the conspiracy rumors behind the JFK assassination established him as an authority on this unique and tragic moment in American history.

In fact, the first editor of Texas Monthly, William Broyles, described Aynesworth as “one of the most respected authorities on the assassination of John F. Kennedy”.

Aynesworth, who has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting, has also written books about serial killers Ted Bundy and Henry Lee Lucas.

He is an active member of the Dallas Press Club and still writes freelance articles, often for the Dallas Morning News, his employer on that fateful 1963 November afternoon.