Runaway Bay community rallies after deadly tornado hits bedroom community

Runaway Bay is in recovery mode after a deadly tornado hit the edges of its southwestern, western, and northern corners, Mayor Herman White said. 

One person was killed, 20 people are without homes, and as the mayor checked in with one of his leaders, none of those displaced wanted to go to shelters.

"They're all wanting to shelter in place just in case looters come out," the man told the mayor on speaker phone.

"There was a lot of devastation and a lot of people that need to be taken care of," White said. "Anything that I can ever do, as small as I can do for people, is what we're doing, now."

According to the mayor, his citizens are more like family, so the storm damage and loss of life are personal. White said that together, his bedroom community will survive.

"Lean on God and lean on us. We will be there for you," he said.

Donations and volunteers began to fill the city. White's family owns a former church that's now a community event center. It has become the community's center for help.

"Hope. Faith. Neighborhood. Community. It's everything the small-town Texas this country stands for as being there for each other, loving on each other, being there to help when we need," Berry White said. "And they really stepped up and done a great job. The people have come from everywhere, even Oklahoma."

White, a Bridgeport attorney, has been coordinating supplies and helping those in need as they come in. His wife and daughters were out delivering water to workers and others on Sunday. He said that the night of a tornado, there was a fundraiser at the event center until the weather got too bad.

"The fire department here called us and said, 'Hey, shut it down. You've got to go seek shelter,'" he said. "We had people that stayed here because it depended on where they lived."

Now, the center may house others, like Texans on Mission, who provide food and services to those in need, too.

"We've had people come in from Fort Worth. The Dallas Fire Department brought some water out," White said.

One of the donors from Fort Worth is Jude Carlson. The 19-year-old college student said he had friends who were supposed to bring pizza. He brought water.

"There's still things to do, and there's still people that need to step up and help. So it's really encouraging to go in that building and see all that people have done," Carlson said.

It's for tornado survivors like Tammy Ratliff, Jacob Sullivan, and Michael Singleton. Two partners and a neighbor.

"One minute I was sitting on my bed watching TV. The next thing I know, the tornado is hitting," Sullivan said. "It's hail, and it's raining. And it basically came to our roof, and the light got flooded, and trees were everywhere. It's pretty scary."

They lost their homes. In fact, when they spoke to CBS News Texas, the three were looking for lodging.

"I have no living family. I'm all by myself," Singleton said.

The recovery leaves an opportunity for hope. Ratliff said she felt hope when the tornado passed.

"You only have a few moments to decide where to go and what to do. And then that's when you should have hope," she said.