Tornado Ruins Still Stand From the 1970 Lubbock Disaster
I thought I'd bring this back in the context of the 2020 world.
A tornado hit Lubbock on May 11th, 1970. That's 50 years ago today. While memorials are being built and tributes are airing on TV, a testament to the horror of that day still (partially) stands.
This is on Mesa Road headed to the Lubbock Country Club area and/or if you prefer, across the interstate from the Lubbock Business Park.
Truth be told, it's a place where many a delinquent hung out to smoke weed over the past few decades. It's one of the last few places (actually, the only one I know) that still stands from that terrible day. This is what I think deserves to be preserved. No glossy memorial or teary-eyed tribute is as sobering as looking at the floor where the tile used to be, or the spot where somebody slept that is now occupied by a tree.
I know nothing but rumors about the property owner. I only know that for many years a woman would show up and paste a few of the cinderblocks back into place.
Lubbock would do well to preserve some of these ruins as a reminder that these things really did happen and could happen again. This obliterated home tells the story of the 1970 tornado in a way that nothing else can.