Duke women's basketball's Richa Jackson survives tornado, gains new perspective

Richa Jackson is one of Duke women’s basketball’s more physical players—the rising senior rarely shies away from a challenge, and she often tussles in the paint against much larger defenders.

But even one of the Blue Devils’ strongest players was not prepared to be tossed around by the EF5 tornado that ripped through Moore, Okla. Monday afternoon.

Jackson, a Midwest City, Okla. native, was visiting her cousin in Moore when the tornado—with winds as high as 210 mph—touched down and barreled through her cousin’s home.

“It sounded like we were on the train tracks and the train was coming straight at us,” Jackson said. “You could feel the heavy wind coming.... I could hear everything collapsing and falling. It was so loud.”

When she heard the house’s alarm system signal that the front door had been ripped open, Jackson said she knew the tornado had struck the house.

After nearly a half hour seeking shelter in a closet with her cousin’s fiancé, Marcus Dockings, and the couple’s two children, the Blue Devil forward emerged from the wreckage of her cousin’s house unscathed.

“We looked at the house we had just come out of and we were just so thankful,” Jackson said. “We were so grateful that we got out because you would not have thought that someone could have made it out of that house.”

Jackson said the closet in which they sought shelter was one of the only rooms in the house left standing.

“We looked up, and we were almost outside,” Jackson said. “Some of the roof had come down and could have crushed us.”

With the storm bearing down on her cousin’s home, Jackson said she didn’t even think to bring shoes with her into the closet.

After the heavy winds had subsided, the rising senior walked through the rubble of her cousin’s house barefoot, in what she could only describe as a state of shock.

“I never thought that it would ever actually really happen to me,” Jackson said. “You look outside and the whole neighborhood was just gone.... I couldn’t believe what had just happened.”

Forced to wander on foot in an effort to find cell phone service, Jackson finally found that she had missed a call from head coach Joanne P. McCallie. Jackson then made an effort to contact her parents, but the area’s cell tower had been damaged in the storm.

When she had finally been picked up and transported from the devastation hours later, Jackson said her phone was flooded with missed calls and text messages from her Blue Devil teammates and coaches.

The first message she responded to was that of her classmate and point guard, Chelsea Gray. When Jackson regained service, more messages followed.

“All of a sudden my phone kept blowing up,” Jackson said. “I called my mom and my father first and then I started responding to all my teammates and everyone on the staff.”

Jackson said her teammates’ well-wishes helped her initial shock subside.

“At that point it made me feel so much better,” Jackson said. “Afterwards I was in complete disbelief and was really shaken up. But then they started calling me and texting me, and it made me feel so relieved to know that they are really there for me—not just with basketball but with anything in life experiences.”

Now staying with her father, Jackson continues to assist her family in their recovery efforts and said she will continue to lean on her teammates and coaches for support. She also said her tornado experience has helped to change her outlook on life.

“You can’t take life for granted,” Jackson said. “It was such an eye-opener for me to experience that because you never think you’re going to be the one in that situation.”