PASADENA, Texas – For the last year, Norma Ayala has lived under a roof that’s anything but her own.
When a destructive EF-3 tornado touched down in Pasadena, the twister didn’t spare Ayala’s home on South Meadow Drive in the Bliss Meadows neighborhood.
In a matter of seconds, her home was reduced to rubble. The roof was torn off, walls caving in and a life’s worth of belongings scattered around.
“When I go outside to my house in the city. Look like this. Somebody put a bomb in this neighborhood,” Ayala said.
She was inside her home, sitting in the living room when the tornado approached her neighborhood on its more than 20-mile journey of devastation through the Houston area.
“I remember everything,” Ayala said. “I hear the noise. They make like a choo-choo train. And then, so everything’s coming to me, and I got my two dogs, Max and Coco, here.”
She recounts the horrifying moments sitting in the same spot one year later. However, this time her living room is nothing but a concrete pad.
Despite that, she can still tell you exactly where everything was in her home although she hasn’t walked through those rooms in 365 days.
Gage: “You still remember it?”
Norma: “I still remember. Right here is the kitchen. And over there is the living room.”
After the tornado passed by her house, she opened her eyes to find herself and her dogs trapped under what used to be her ceiling.
Norma: “I start screaming for help. And my neighbor saw him instead of to help me.”
Gage: “What was that like?”
Norma: “I can’t describe.”
Gage: “Did you think that you were going to survive?”
Norma: “No, no, because the air is strong. I see that everything flies in the sides to me.”
Her home was destroyed. The roof was gone. And the walls are caving in, ready to collapse at any moment.
Norma: “It’s hard.”
Gage: “You’re the only home on the block that has been torn down, right?”
Norma: “Yes. It’s the only house.”
Gage: “Was that tough to watch your home come down your home of 40 years?”
Norma: “Yes. I can’t believe it when that. So, my house, I sometimes come, I pass from here and start crying. What’s going on? Why nobody helps me [re]building my house.”
According to Ayala, she didn’t have insurance when the tornado hit. She missed payments after her son was in the hospital for an extended period.
She also says that FEMA told her the tornado wasn’t a disaster, meaning the federal funds weren’t coming.
Gage: “Do you feel like you’re living through a disaster, though?”
Norma: “Yes. Yeah, because the government here doesn’t come and check everybody.”
To date, the only help she received was from someone she least expected: from a random woman.
That random person turned out to be her saving grace.
“The neighbor and Ms. Debbie. [They] bring the people to help me pick it out of the garbage,” Ayala said.
Meet ‘Miss Debbie’
Meet Debbie Grigg, better known by Norma as her angel.
Grigg brought a brought of volunteers to clean out the debris from Norma’s home. A local church eventually helped to pay for the demolition.
But who is this Miss Debbie?
“Well, four days before the tornado, I had been nominated to be the president of the Civic Club. So I had to go into overdrive,” Grigg said. I just went the day of that tornado out the door to go check on the seniors in the neighborhood.”
Ever since that day, Grigg has been helping Ayala through GoFundMe pages and helping her find a place to live across town.
Gage: “What does it mean to you to be able to help people?”
Debbie: “Well, it’s my passion to help people. You know, it’s ingrained in me. I guess I’ve always jumped in.”
Can Norma Rebuild?
She’s jumping on both feet first to find a way to help Ayala rebuild her home.
However, the reality is: that that might never happen.
Gage: “What would it take for you to be able to rebuild?
Norma: “Well, I suppose the GoFundMe and the Facebook.”
Gage: “But until then, you’re kind of stuck?”
Norma: “Yes.”
While the rest of Pasadena puts this tornado behind them, there’s no telling as to when or even if Ayala will ever be able to join them or rebuild her home.