A devastating tornado outbreak swept through the Deep South over the weekend, claiming the lives of four people, including 46-year-old Jamie Brown of Brazoria County, Texas.
Jamie was at home in Alvin, Texas, on Saturday, Dec. 28, when an EF-2 tornado struck the property, uprooting lives and homes. According to her wife, Stafnie Brown, Jamie had been inside their modular home, preparing lunch, when the storm hit.
In a heart-wrenching interview with KHOU, Stafnie described the chaos: “I guess my mom’s house hit their house. It knocked it off, and the tornado picked it up, threw it, and dropped it—it exploded.”
The tornado hurled the home over 100 feet from its foundation. Stafnie later found Jamie in the wreckage and attempted CPR, but it was too late. “I think she got crumpled by stuff in the house,” Stafnie shared through tears.
The tornado destroyed every structure on the Browns’ property, which had withstood three hurricanes in the past. Jamie and Stafnie had moved there in August to help care for Stafnie’s mother.
Remembering Jamie, Stafnie called her a loving and selfless person: “I still think I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night, and she’s there … but it’s not going to happen.”
The Browns weren’t the only ones affected by the storm. Erica Ackerman, her husband, Billy, and their two children also lived on the property. The tornado reduced their main house to rubble, leaving them displaced and grieving the loss of Jamie.
“There are six of us displaced, and we have completely lost everything, including a dear family member,” Erica shared in a GoFundMe campaign that has since raised over $7,000 to aid recovery efforts.
Jamie’s death is one of four fatalities linked to the severe weather outbreak. Among the victims was 8-year-old Tykeria Roger of Mississippi, who was killed when a tree fell on her home. Two other deaths were reported in Mississippi’s Lowndes County and North Carolina’s Iredell County, where a man died after a tree fell on his vehicle.