Rerouted Drivers, Witnesses Share Weather Info

CANTON—Lucky Food Mart is usually a quiet place after sunset, with the occasional customer stopping for gasoline or a lottery ticket.

Wednesday night was anything but usual.

The convenience store that sits just a few blocks inside the Canton city limits on Highway 64 was abuzz with traffic after storm damage shut down Interstate 20 at State Highway 19 late Wednesday afternoon, forcing motorists and commercial truck drivers to reroute through the city.

"I’ve had a lot of people come in tonight," the store owner, who goes by the name Raj, said just before two more customers walked in. "This is the first place they see coming into town.

"People have been stopping to buy gas, snacks, sodas and drink, or to get directions to Tyler or Louisiana," Raj added.

One of those in need of road guidance was truck driver Mike Ramsey, who was en route to Alabama when he was caught in the huge backup on Interstate 20, shortly before it was closed completely due to downed power lines.

"I was stuck in traffic since 4 p.m. and then they shut down the interstate completely. They eventually let us onto the off-ramp but then had us turn back around," Ramsey said before asking Raj the nearest route that would get him beyond the eastbound interstate closure.

A moment later, Wynne Community resident Karen Prox stopped to buy gasoline and recounted the chaotic scene there as the storm tore through her neighborhood.

"There are a lot of houses damaged in Wynne. It is a total mess over there, trees down everywhere," she said.

"I’ve lived here for 45 years and I’ve never seen it that bad in our neighborhood," Prox added.

Perhaps the most dramatic testimony from among the store’s customers Wednesday evening came from Alba resident Billie Hill, who was to meet friends in Canton after leaving work in Mineola.

She arrived at the State Highway 19 overpass at Interstate 20 literally seconds after the storm’s high winds wreaked havoc.

"I got heavy hail, (and) a lot of wind and a lot of water on the road. It was hard to keep the car on the road," Hill said. "I was listening to the radio and they said there was a tornado debris cloud.

"That’s about when I got right there on 20 and 19 and I saw the turned-over 18-wheeler and the Circle K sign bent over, debris in the high line wires and traffic backed up for miles," she continued. "I’m still shaking."

Her friends were safe, she learned, and were to meet her at Lucky Food Mart.

"They were trapped on one side of the highway and I was trapped on the other," Hill added.

Raj said his store did not suffer any visible damage from the storm’s high winds — it just blew over a couple of signs and trash cans — but he later learned that real damage occurred just a few blocks away.

The storm tore up a property fence and uprooted a tree line on either side of Highway 64 near the Canton city limit marker, approximately three blocks from Lucky Food Mart.

Another report of a fallen tree across Farm-to-Market Road 859 had traffic cut down to one lane for a time there.