Families displaced, vehicles damaged by tornado

Lucky is a relative term. The ceiling collapsed over the baby's crib, but young Angel was safe in his mother's arms at the time and his sister Briana was out of the room.

"They were shaking, they were crying," explains their mother Elsi Mendez. And really who wouldn't be?

The National Weather Service confirms a tornado focused its terrible might on the Azalea Park Apartments complex. It knocked over trees, tore off the roof, shattered windows and frayed the nerves of residents. If the winds didn't cause damage, the water did or at least tried to.

"I don't know what's going to happen now," says Sebastian Iguit. "It's a mess, like two inches of water in there." 

It's the hardest hit place in a hard hit area. The fast-moving storm drenched parts of southeast Texas with torrential rains and battered them with heavy winds. Flood waters forced Allen Parkway to close and people in downtown Houston to scramble for shelter..

Back at the Azalea Park Apartments, neighbors pitched in to help neighbors to free their cars trapped by a fallen carport. The damage to most of them was surprisingly light. Even more remarkably, nobody was hurt.

"I'm safe, my kids, I'm happy -- the material things they can stay," adds Mendez. "My life, my kids..."