Milam County church rebuilt better than ever after 2019 tornado
Milam County is no stranger to tornadoes. In fact, that part of Central Texas has seen a number of tornadoes in recent years, which wreaked havoc in their paths.
Billy Bob Cox is the minister at the historic San Gabriel Christian Church in Thorndale, in Milam County— which suffered heavy damage in a 2019 tornado. “We were devastated. It looked like a bomb had gone off,” he said. “We probably took the brunt of the damage. Our parsonage was beyond repair; our parsonage got some damage, but our chapel got the most.”
But Cox says they couldn’t have imagined what they would find once they began to rebuild. “Originally we had wallpaper over that wood even on the ceiling and it had been probably 25, 30 years ago, they put carpet down on the floor, so nobody remembered, had any idea what t it looked like,” he said.
Most of what you see today is the original wood, original pews, and a stained-glass window that amazingly survived the tornado — a blessing after church members first saw what the cyclone had done.
Today though, they’re not worried what tomorrow might bring. “If you live in Texas there's going to be tornadoes,” Cox said.
