Central Market Seeking Shoppers Who Sheltered From the Storm

It won’t be long before the Central Market at Preston Road and Royal Lane will reopen after being shuttered for more than a year after an EF3 tornado barreled through Preston Hollow.

That night, customers ended up sheltering inside the store as the tornado ransacked the shopping center it sits in.

“Four of our leaders had shepherded 40 customers into the dairy cooler and the meat cooler, and it protected all 40 of those shoppers and other members of our team,” Stephen Butt, president of H-E-B/Central Market Division, recalled at an event last year, adding that when he saw the news of the tornado he called each of the stores in the potential path.

The store on East Lovers Lane answered.

The store at Midway and Northwest Highway answered.

“Preston Royal, just silence,” he said.

Butt said then that many of the 140 employees who are now working at other Central Market locations will return when the store opens in late June. A reader reached out today, however, with a special request for the customers who found themselves inside the store that scary night.

“A special note to those customers who sheltered inside the Preston Royal Central Market during the tornado: Company officials want to connect with you and extend an invitation to a special event at their ribbon-cutting ceremony in June,” the reader said, asking us to pass it along.

If you were inside the store at that time, email Preston@HEB.com or call their Public Affairs office at 214-252-5904. And also drop us a line here.