West Point tornado damage closes family-run motel since the 70s for the near future

The West Point Motel has been in Divyesh Patel’s family since the 1970s and now will be closed for the foreseeable future due to a tornado that ravaged the town Sunday morning.

Patel’s parents moved to West Point in the late 1970s after owning a hotel in Columbus. He said his parents owned and operated the motel for around 30 years until two years ago when his father died.

After his father’s death, he took over the motel. Now the motel his family has spent decades with is beaten down.

Patel and his family woke up to a hail storm early Sunday and soon after heard glass shattering nearby.

“We knew that this was something that we had to take shelter for,” Patel said.

Dawn Monroe’s uncle, James Sheppard, was staying at the West Point Motel when the tornado hit the area. She said the sound of hail hitting the air conditioning unit in his room woke him.

“And he was crying, and he was like, ‘I’m gone. I just wanted to let y’all know y’all will be the ones to hear my last words that I love y’all,’” said Monroe.

She said her uncle stepped outside and was hit by a gust of wind, prompting him to shut the door, run to his bathroom and get in the bathtub.

Monroe said its a “blessing” that her uncle was still alive. After receiving his phone call, she and other family members raced from Valley, a nearby Alabama town, to the hotel to check on her uncle walking almost two miles and over live power lines to get to him.

All residents at the motel remained safe, Patel said.

After the tornado passed and the weather calmed down, Patel made his way outside but it was too dark to see the severity until morning.

“That’s when we found out that we were like pretty badly hit with a tornado,” Patel said.

The damage seemed to be focused towards the roofs with the brick walls of the motel standing resolute not allowing the trees and branches to breach into the rooms in most instances.

A car parked in the motel parking lot sustained damage from a nearby fallen tree and its branches.

“We’re going to be closed for a good two years now,” Patel said.

At the moment there is a long way to go for Patel and his family with insurance, clean up and rebuilding.

“I’m looking positively for a better future,” Patel said.