Video: N Gloster Street Business Owner Recalls Tornado Of 2014 And Determination To Rebuild

TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – “We had eight employees that day, probably five employees here that day and couple of our office girls had come up here, this is kind of our tornado shelter,” said
Randy Groover, who owns Havoline Xpress Lube Shops across the region, but the store on North  Gloster is special.  It is the first One Groover opened in April of 1994.   The store had just celebrated its 20th anniversary, when the tornado hit the North Gloster business district the afternoon of April 28 2014.

“The employees were kind of standing around watching, some of them had already went in the pit, a couple of them seen the buildings across the street start going up in the air,” he said.

All employees on site took cover in the “pit” or the bay where workers perform oil changes.

The building was damaged extensively, but all employees were safe.  Groover was on the scene within a few minutes after the devastation.

“My son was up here and he said, we’ve lost north Gloster.  I was just thinking , I hope no one is hurt.  I was really proud of our employees that day, people was walking around with no shoes, just like what you see on TV, our guys had t shirts laying around, a lot of them was wet and brought a lot of them into shelter, what building we had left here,” Groover said.

Groover’s employees at the North Gloster shop were able to work at other locations, until the store re opened about six months later, in the same spot. Some of Groover’s neighbors also rebuilt, some moved locations and others haven’t returned.

“Hotel housing that was here, restaurant across the street, gas station that was here. I think there are some great opportunities now.  We’ve rebuilt, made changes to the place, made it a better looking facility than what it was,” he said.

Without a doubt the landcsape, both physically and corporately has changed over the past three years.  But one thing has stayed the same, the resiliency of those who call Tupelo their home.

Tornadoes also hit parts of Itawamba County after touching down in Tupelo.