One survivor said it was like a thunderstorm that ”went crazy” as twisters ripped through rural North Texas, reducing homes to concrete slabs and killing three people, including a teenager cowering in the stairwell of his home.
At least 26 homes were destroyed in the storms that hit late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday. Ten people were hospitalised and dozens of others were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
A couple in their 80s were found dead in a destroyed mobile home in Westminster, about 72km north-east of Dallas, Collin County Fire Marshal Steve Deffibaugh said. A 14-year-old boy was killed in neighbouring Grayson County when a chimney collapsed on the stairwell where he had taken shelter, authorities said.
”It sounded like a regular thunderstorm, then it went crazy,” said Cathy Dotson, who huddled on the floor of her Westminster home with her grandchildren when the tornado hit on Tuesday night. ”I could actually feel my house move.”
Christy Adame took shelter in a closet with her husband and two sons. When they emerged, she found her horse barn gone, one of her horses dead in a tree and the smell of propane so strong — and the risk of an explosion so high — that officials would not let a neighbour shoot his suffering cow, which had been impaled on a two-by-four.
”Now I know what an earthquake feels like,” Adame said.
Collin County spokesperson Leigh Hornsby said crews went door-to-door checking homes early on Wednesday to make sure there were no more victims, and believe everyone was accounted for. The dead were identified as Paul Harris Newsom (82); his wife, Mary Ellen (80) and Colson Owens (14).
Deffibaugh said the twisters took Westminster’s residents ”by surprise, totally unaware”. The community of about 420 has no sirens, and the tornadoes hit too fast for the county’s emergency telephone-notification system to respond, he said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Alan Moller said at least two tornadoes hit. ”I think it was the first tornado that killed three people,” he said. ”Then there was a larger tornado after that that probably did extensive damage.” – Sapa-AP