North Attleboro High grad in Texas whose home was hit by a tornado thanks class

Turk, who was known as Kim D'Onofrio when she lived and went to school here, contacted her former classmates Stephanie Urban McGehearty and Kimberley Larson Cryan who shared the story on the Class of '93's private Facebook page. The response was immediate and generous.

In the time since the storm hit Salado, Texas, on April 12, Turk's classmates have raised more than $4,000 in gift  and restaurant cards, she says, "that will definitely help us out for the next several months. I can’t believe it’s been a month since it happened and we are so thankful for your kindness and support."

"I've been friends with Kim since middle school," McGehearty said in a phone interview. I had seen her post about her losing her home and Kim Cryan saw the same thing."

"We asked if anyone would like to make donations while they rebuild," McGehearty said, "and gave a list of local restaurants they like to go to."

The classmates will be sending out a check from the monetary donations they received, too, she said. "We always try to keep in touch, it's a pretty special class," said McGehearty, 47, a middle school assistant counselor who now lives in Smithfield, R.I., with her husband and two daughters.

The class has also raised funds for a member whose daughter has been battling cancer, she says.

The EF3 tornado struck Salado, a town of some 2,300 residents near the center of the Lone Star State, at 5:30 p.m., damaging or destroying some 70 buildings in the area, including two churches, and leaving 23 people injured, including a dozen sent to local hospitals, according to local media reports. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot visited the area shortly after the storm.

There were no reported fatalities.

"Some people say you can tell a tornado is coming because it sounds like a freight train or you can actually see one coming, but we didn’t see or hear anything," Turk said in her email. "What we did see was a massive amount of hail that looked like 2-3 inches of snow in our backyard. It melted within seconds, then a piece of a house shot like a dart in our backyard." That’s when her husband Corey, a contractor, shouted to get her and their five children into their shelter -- actually their master closet.

Turk said she and her family huddled together and "heard the tornado passing over us." When the roaring, "a sound we'll never forget," stopped, they were stunned when they emerged to find their roof gone and rain pouring into the home. "It was unbelievable and it all went by so fast -- we are so thankful to be alive."

She says the family, which moved to Texas in 2014 and settled in Salado in 2018, is currently living in a rented home, but her children are back in school and the family plans to rebuild.

In an emotional interview standing in front of her damaged home and broadcast by a local TV station a couple of weeks after the storm, Turk, who works as an account executive, expressed her gratitude for the support shown her family by neighbors including country music singer Brandon Rhyder, a Salado native who performed a benefit concert for the town last month.

McGehearty, said the connection among classmates has stayed strong. At their graduation dance, she recalls Wilson Whitty, principal from 1981 to 2001, saying he'd never seen a class as united "and we still continue to be."

(This story has been updated with additional material supplied by email from Kim Turk.)