Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: MULTIMEDIA

LONE GROVE, Okla. ­­- Carl Eanes, a Lone Grove, Okla. resident, fought back tears as he walked through his demolished, roofless house Wednesday morning. Eanes' half-lit cigarette hung from his mouth as he meandered from room to room surveying the wound that a half-mile tornado left on his life.

The F-4 tornado, which had winds from 207 to 260 mph, tore through Carter County at around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night, leaving nine people dead authorities said. The damaged area is about 80 miles north of Denton. Lone Grove, which has about 4,600 residents, is 100 miles south of Oklahoma City.

"It felt like it just shook the whole building," Eanes said. "Like somebody threw a Volkswagen up against the side there."

Eanes hid with his wife Doris Eanes in the back hallway of their home. After the storm, they called their grandson Will Enriquez to come get them.

"He called and said that the house had been hit, but at least we knew they were OK," Enriquez said.

Carl Eanes, who did not have insurance on his trailer home, spent Tuesday night with relatives in nearby city, Ardmore, Okla.

"We were shook up," he said. "I knew there was damage, I could feel the draft. I just had no idea it was this bad at the time."

After a victim was airlifted to Dallas and died Wednesday afternoon, the death count rose to nine people, Carter County Sheriff Ken Grace said. Damage from the tornado injured about 50 people, he said. Most of the damage happened around Lone Grove.

"We were checking for survivors from the south to the north end, which is the route the tornado went," Grace said. "We had airplanes in the air and took it foot-by-foot - we've done about all we can do."

Residents went back to their homes to survey the damage by 6 p.m. on Wednesday after city and county workers removed hazards such as fallen power lines, Grace said.

As Carl Eanes wandered through his destroyed home after the tornado had passed, he stared into his bedroom, where the roof had blown off.

"That's what I'm thankful for," he said, "that I wasn't laying in that bed."

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