Pasadena still cleaning up from January tornado 8 months later
HOUSTON - On Jan. 24 a tornado ripped through parts of Pasadena and Deer Park.
Homes and businesses were severely damaged and destroyed.
"It still gets me a little teary," stated Melissa Clark, Manager of Animal Control and Adoption at the Pasadena Animal Shelter.
A portion of the Pasadena Animal Shelter at 5150 Burke Road was destroyed.
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When the tornado hit, 200 cats and dogs and some employees were cared for inside the shelter.
"Despite there were pieces of the roof and insulation falling into the kennels, they (the cats, dogs, and employees) were fine," stated Clark.
Now, the shelter is by appointment only and they have moved everything into the Adoption Center next door.
"Everybody, all the staff, animals that we have, all of the stuff that we use, we are all here," stated Clark
"And so actually I'm in an office that is made for one person but there is four of us. And we have our dispatch in a closet and our adoption events team in a cat staging room. But we are making it work!"
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A Pasadena resident and her family are also still displaced after their home on Kiowa Street was hit by the tornado.
The roof of the home they lived in for about five years was torn off and there was extensive water damage.
Apartment building in Pasadena suffers tornado damage, strong winds
*EDITORS NOTE: This video is from a previous story in January 2023. As FOX 26 continues to bring wall-to-wall coverage of the severe weather across the Greater Houston area, our Sherman Desselle shows the severe damage to an apartment in Pasadena and speaks with a resident impacted by the storm.
"All this had to be redone, all the walls came down. You could see straight through the house," said Isamar Aguilar. "So that is what has taken a very long time. We had to have everything brand new. We had to basically start from the bottom."
Aguilar and her husband have a kindergartener and an eighth grader.
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Since Jan. 24, they have been living with a relative while working on their home, including a new roof is completed.
Aguilar also has cookie baking business, Issa Cookie, that took a big hit as well.
"I have had to tell a lot of my loyal customers that I cannot do a lot of their work. A lot of my big orders, company orders," she said. "You know I've lost a lot of business. But they all say they are waiting for me to come back. I know they are supportive of me and they understand.
The air conditioning and plumbing in the home were destroyed when the tornado hit.
"We had to get everything new including the AC and plumbing, which has taken a long time," Aguilar says.
Aguilar and her family are hoping to move back into their home as soon as the repairs and renovations are finished.
She plans to start baking cookies once again for her customers as soon as possible. "I miss it so much and I even had to get a new baking oven."
Throughout Pasadena there is still noticeable damage from the devastating tornado.