The National Weather Service in Miami said the tornado hit late Saturday afternoon with winds of 100 mph (160 kph) near Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and headed northeast toward the coast.

Storm damage forced authorities in the coastal city to close major roadways as workers cleared debris and inspected wreckage. Images from the scene showed cars flipped over on top of each other, cracked tree limbs resting on vehicles and homes, as well as other debris littering streets.

The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department has not reported any major injuries or fatalities. A spokeswoman for the city said officials have deactivated emergency protocols and were working through lingering issues Sunday.

The National Weather Service had placed a large stretch of central Florida under a tornado watch on Saturday afternoon as thunderstorms were cutting across the state.

A Sam’s Club spokesman said the decision to keep the store permanently closed “aligns with the long-term growth strategy for our company.”

Video from Texas Sky Ranger Thursday morning showed crews repairing the building’s roof structure.

“After careful consideration and a thorough damage assessment, we have made the difficult business decision to close our Grapevine, Texas location that incurred extensive damage during the storm last December. This decision aligns with the long-term growth strategy for our company,” read a Sam’s Club statement to NBC 5 Thursday.

Walmart, the parent company of Sam’s Club, will continue to own the 160,000-square-foot damaged building but has no plans for it, Sam’s Club spokesman David Schrag told NBC 5’s partners at The Dallas Morning News. Nearby Sam’s Club in Keller and Irving are about 10 miles west and east of the closed store. Sam’s Club operates 23 other warehouse clubs in North Texas.

“Since the initial closure in late 2022, we have seen the majority of our members shift their shopping patterns to nearby clubs,” Shrang told The News.

Five people were hurt in the Dec. 13 tornado that left a trail of damage in several areas of Grapevine. Cellphone video showed the tornado crossing west to east over Texas 114, from the Sam’s Club to the area near Baylor Scott and White Medical Center – Grapevine.

Damage reports in the area included missing paneling on roofs and walls from area businesses, a tractor-trailer tossed into a tree and dozens of damaged tree limbs. Parts of Grapevine Mills Mall and a Discount Tire location near the Sam’s Club were also damaged.

A total of 16 tornadoes touched down Dec. 13 across North Texas. The tornado that hit Grapevine was an EF-1 with winds reaching as strong as 110 mph, the National Weather Service said.

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

Storm Damage Around Grapevine After Severe Storms on Dec. 13, 2022

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

5 Hurt After Tornado Damages Businesses, Vehicles and Homes in Grapevine

Grapevine Dec 14, 2022

Cleanup Underway in Grapevine After Tornado Causes Damage to Buildings, Power Outages

People have been dropping off socks, sleeping bags, water and other necessities at the Veteran’s Resource Outreach Center in Rowlett, also known as the VROC. They’re calling the effort Task Force Amory and are encouraging people to drop off disaster relief supplies to the VROC, including medical mobility devices, through Friday.

A donor paid for a 26-foot Ryder truck and has offered to cover the costs for an additional truck if they collect enough supplies to fill it.

Motorcycle clubs in Oklahoma and Louisiana are also joining in the effort. Volunteers plan to drive to collect supplies from other states to deliver to Amory on Sunday, April 2.

They’re accepting donations of non-perishable food items, baby food and diapers, Gatorade, tarps, tools, buckets, cords, toiletries and more.

The VROC is located at 4210 Industrial Street in Rowlett. They’re also accepting donations at The Rowlett Food Pantry at 4501 Rowlett Rd.

ONLINE: Learn more here.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Carolyn McNally Shepherd of Irving has lived in her home along Lucille Street for about 20 years. One of her favorite parts of her home was the abundance of trees in her yard.

“And the red jays and the bluebirds. I see them every morning out here in the trees,” McNally Shepherd said. “Guess I won’t be seeing them anymore.”

Several trees by her home were downed Thursday, as severe storms pushed through North Texas. The National Weather Service damage teams confirmed the twisters on Friday, first confirming an EF-1 tornado with winds up to 105-110 mph in Irving. A second tornado was confirmed in Navarro County near the north side of Corsicana, where winds were estimated to have reached 95 mph.

Friday evening the NWS confirmed a third tornado, also an EF-1, struck the north side of Irving, just north of Texas 183. Peak winds are estimated to have reached 105 mph.

“We just kind of panicked. I know I panicked, just because I’ve never seen this before for as long as I have lived for. I don’t see how in the world those big, beautiful trees could come down like that,” McNally Shepherd said.

The storms caused branches to break and fall on her son’s car, causing some damage. Her home was spared.

Nearby, her neighbors spent Friday cleaning up. Alex Rivera is visiting his in-laws, whose home sustained some roof damage after a tree fell on a portion of it.

“I was like, ‘whoa,’” Rivera said. “It shook a little bit, but I thought it was like a car. When I saw it on top of the house, I was surprised nothing major happened.”

Next door, Virginia Romano and her family spent Friday clearing trees from their front yard.

“It was a different experience completely. Never really happened here,” Romano said, referring to the storm Thursday.

In Garland, straight-line winds reaching 75 mph caused damage to fences, trees of roofs in one neighborhood on Thursday.

Irving Mar 17

EF-1 Tornadoes Confirmed in Irving, Corsicana During Thursday's Severe Storms

freezing temperatures Mar 17

Freeze Warning in Effect Sunday Morning Across North Texas

The National Weather Service says that EF-1 tornadoes hit the cities of Corsicana and Irving as severe storms pushed through.

NWS damage teams confirmed the twisters Friday, first confirming an EF-1 tornado with winds up to 105-110 mph in Irving.

A second tornado was confirmed in Navarro County near the north side of Corsicana, where winds were estimated to have reached 95 mph.

Friday evening the NWS confirmed a third tornado, also an EF-1, struck the north side of Irving, just north of Texas 183. Peak winds are estimated to have reached 105 mph. An automotive dealership that was in the path of the storm sustained damage when parts of its façade came crashing down.

Families displaced in Irving

The storm ripped the roof off two buildings in the Garden Grove apartment townhomes on Shady Grove Road near Belt Line Road in Irving.

The missing roof caused rainwater to pour through and the ceilings to cave in on bedrooms. Water-soaked clothes, furniture and carpet.

At least six units were affected and several families were displaced. NBC 5 learned that the landlord has put some of the residents up in a hotel for a few days but families are trying to find long-term accommodations for the next few months while repairs are made to the units.

The Red Cross has also stepped in to offer financial assistance and other forms of aid.

Families spent much of the day cleaning up and salvaging what they could from the mess.

“It’s bad and unfortunate, with things that happen that’s out of our control but i’m glad that everybody in my family is safe,” said Beuy Sribounheuang, whose family is displaced due to the storm. “I know material things and things in life — it can come and go. But family is important to me. Thank God my family is safe.”

He and his wife, Tik, are part of a tight-knit group of families from Laos and Thailand that were affected by the tornado. She said they are leaning on each other through this difficult time.

“Things might happen but we thank God we safe. And hope everybody survives like us. Everything outside — that’s OK. But if your soul and your people are safe, thank God,” she said.

Charity warehouse damaged in Grand Prairie

In Grand Prairie, the humanitarian nonprofit group World Vision had significant damage to its warehouse. The organization helps respond to disasters around the world.

It’s unclear right now if it was hit by the tornado confirmed by the NWS but the people there say when the lights began to flicker, an employee immediately gathered the 13 people inside and headed toward the prayer room for cover.

“As they were just walking into the prayer room, we heard the roof and everything start falling apart,” said Quincy Walker, site manager.

The group is still assessing the damage.

They believe hundreds of pallets of goods like food, water and personal hygiene products may be lost.

Block of fences down in Garland

In Garland, straight-line winds wiped out wooden fences along a block of homes near Duck Creek Park.

The NWS estimates the winds reached 75 mph in that area.

It caused damage to fences, knocked trees down and significant damaged the roofs of some homes.

Fatima Zaheer saw a wall of wind and rain outside of her windows before she took cover with her family.

“It sounded like a train, a train coming in from one side of the house,” she said. “At that point, the whole house began to shake. The tree was bending from the wind so hard that it touched the ground.”

Zaheer’s father had multiple sets of patio furniture in their backyard for family gatherings — he said the storm knocked down their fence and sucked out the furniture, scattering it elsewhere in the neighborhood.

“It’s a mess. First, gratitude comes to mind. Nobody got hurt. It’s all just physical things but it still sets in,” Zaheer said while walking with her baby on Friday morning.

Her neighbor Greg Lomax sustained heavy damage to his roof and fence. He’s lived on the block for 23 years and has been able to dodge most of storms until now.

“After two loud booms that scared everybody in the house, we went to the closet to take cover,” he said.

As a realtor who has seen it all, he’s warning new residents and homeowners to keep storms in mind while living in Texas.

“For it to happen to me, is a different situation,” he said. “Make sure you have good insurance. It’s not all about cheap insurance, it’s about the best insurance because that’s what you’re going to need these days.”

severe weather Mar 16

Irving Car Dealership Wall Collapses During Severe Storms

severe weather Mar 14

Severe Storms Bring Large Hail, Tornado Warnings and Cooler Temperatures to North Texas

hail Mar 16

Your Hail Photos – March 16, 2023

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

A $4,000 tornado shelter built next to her mobile home has provided ‘piece of mind’ anytime the wind begins to whip, and her nerves take over.

“It’s a fear but it’s also a safety mechanism because I’m fixing to go somewhere,” she said pointing at the concrete structure.

Barnett Buck installed the shelter almost a year after seven tornados ripped through the county in 2017 killing four people and injuring 50 others, including Barnett Buck and her daughter.

Her home and her parents’ two-story house on the same plot of land were destroyed.

She shares photographs of the aftermath with friends hoping they take storms seriously.

“I don’t want anybody to feel what I felt,” said Barnett Buck. “To have my daughter ripped from my arms and then to get up and not to know if I’m going to find them alive or at all, it’s not anything I want for anybody. It still haunts me to this day.”

That tornado outbreak seemingly split around the city of Canton avoiding a direct hit.

“After the tornados of 2017, everybody is pretty much weather aware especially on First Monday. Now, I don’t know why God hates us on First Monday, but it always seems this bad stuff happens,” joked longtime Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett.

Everett says city and county leaders are staying in close contact with storm chasers and the National Weather Service out of Fort Worth and Shreveport ahead of potential storms expected Thursday afternoon.

“We are aware, and we are alert and hope just by being ready we don’t need anything,” said Everett.

Thursday is the first day of the city’s popular monthly flea market First Monday Trade Days.

“My husband says the metal roofs on First Monday either attract tornados or repel rain, so we’re just waiting,” she said.

Barnett Buck’s family is stocking up on a few essentials just in case.

Her underground storm shelter is stocked with chairs, crackers, water and important documents.

She hopes people across the region avoid panicking but remain vigilant, and prepared at a moment’s notice.

“Pray,” she said. “And if you get that feeling, if that hair on the back of your neck sticks up or you think ‘maybe we better get somewhere,’ don’t second guess it. Get somewhere.”

She advises those who seek shelter in their home to have football helmets inside their closet to protect their head in case of falling debris.

The mayor is preparing her home by securing outdoor furniture and finding a garage for her car.

Authorities also encourage having shoes with you in case of scattered debris.

There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado emergency for that area, warning that a “large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly tornado” was on the ground Tuesday afternoon and was headed toward Baytown, about 25 miles east of Houston. The warning expired as the system moved to the east.

The storm damaged commercial buildings, homes and power lines in nearby Pasadena, a city southeast of Houston. Utility poles and power lines were downed, and several vehicles, including a trailer, were damaged or flipped over in a parking lot.

Footage from Houston TV stations showed several businesses suffered major damage, including the city’s animal shelter. Nearby, fences were laid over and shingles and sections of roofs were torn from homes, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

In Baytown, there were downed power lines and damage to homes and businesses, but no reports of serious injuries, said Baytown spokesperson Jason Calder.

Shell Chemicals’ site in nearby Deer Park was flaring, or burning off natural gas, after it lost steam because of severe weather, according to Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith.

“We are taking steps to minimize any noise, light, or smoke associated with this activity, though it’s expected to continue until the units are restarted,” Smith said via email. “There is no threat to the community, nor are there any indications a nearby tornado touched down within the Chemicals facility.”

severe weather Jan 24

No Deaths Reported After Twister Prompts ‘Tornado Emergency' in Southeast Texas

Houston Jan 24

Tornado in Houston Area Leaves Behind Serious Damage

The website PowerOutage.us, which collects live power outage data from utilities across the United States, reported about 123,000 Texas customers were without power Tuesday afternoon, mostly in the Houston area and surrounding counties.

It was the start of what was expected to be a stormy day along the Gulf Coast. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said areas along the coast from Houston to the Florida Panhandle could see tornadoes, strong winds and hail on Tuesday.

The storm system was also bringing snow and ice to much of the central U.S., including Dallas-Fort Worth.

Schools and businesses were closed Tuesday and Wednesday across Oklahoma, which saw snowfall totals of between 1 and 6 inches across central and eastern parts of the state. Several school districts in southwest Louisiana dismissed students early Tuesday in anticipation of severe weather in the area.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Police say repair crews – some who might not have good intentions – have been knocking on doors in the last couple of days.

Not all of them are up to no good but experts say it can be really common for fraud to happen during desperate times after a storm.

Grapevine police tweeted an alert on Thursday, in an effort to prevent anyone from becoming a victim of fraud.

The North Central Texas Better Business Bureau always sounds the alarm on these issues after every storm. They say any weather event can bring about unscrupulous contractors, sometimes referred to as “storm chasers.”

BBB also has these specific tips for victims of the storm:

Contact your insurance company. Ask about your policy coverage and specific filing requirements. Save all receipts, including those for food, temporary lodging, or other expenses that may be covered under your policy. Your insurance company may also have recommended contractors.

Do your research. Find businesses you can trust on BBB.org. Check your local city government agency responsible for registering and/or licensing contractors. Get references from friends and relatives. 

Resist high-pressure sales. Some storm chasers use tactics such as the “good deal” you’ll get only if you hire the contractor on the spot. Be pro-active in selecting a contractor and not re-active to sales calls on the phone or door-to-door pitches. Disaster victims should never feel forced to make a hasty decision or to choose an unknown contractor.

Be especially careful of door-to-door contractors. Many municipalities require a solicitation permit if sales people go door-to-door. Ask for identification. Check their vehicle for a business name, phone number, and license plates for your state.

Don’t sign over insurance checks to contractors. Get an invoice from the contractor and pay them directly (preferably with a credit card, which offers additional fraud protection over other forms of payment). Don’t sign any documents that give the contractor any rights to your insurance claims. If you have questions, contact your insurance company or agent.

Be wary regarding places you can’t see. While most contractors abide by the law, be careful allowing someone you do not know to inspect your roof and other areas of your house. An unethical contractor may actually create damage to get work. The same goes for attics, crawl spaces, ducts, and other places you cannot easily access or see for yourself.

BBB is also warning contractors to beware of storm chasers who offer to pay local construction companies substantial amounts of money to use the business’s established name, reputation, and phone. They masquerade as a local business, collect the insurance money and then move on, leaving the real business to deal with unsatisfied customers due to bad workmanship, unfinished work, or unfulfilled warranties.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Damage survey teams have confirmed 14 tornadoes as of Wednesday afternoon with at least two other areas of damage under investigation.

In Tarrant County, homeowners and businesses spent the day clearing debris and waiting on insurance adjusters.

“It just went from everything being perfect to three seconds of swirl and everything everywhere,” said homeowner Jeff Golightly.

Video from his neighbor’s surveillance cameras captured the swirl of wind damaging his roof and creating a mess across his property and others along Sayers Lane in North Richland Hills.

Still, he considers himself lucky.

“When you see houses down to the ground, leveled, yeah – [I] feel fortunate,” said Golightly.

At least 20 homes and businesses suffered damage in North Richland Hills, according to officials.

Ahlers Roofing lost part of their own roof. Crews spent Wednesday drying out offices soaked by the rain.

“The biggest problem is the water damage and we are trying to mitigate how bad it is,” said owner Dan Ahlers.

Similar cleanup operations were happening in Grapevine.

The Waffle Way, a neighborhood fixture since 1987, took a direct hit. Employees and customers ran to the back of the store as the storm blew out windows and tore down the awning. A building next door collapsed, damaging one of their walls.

Owner Lynda Hawkins said customers keep calling or stopping by to check on them.

“That’s what we are. We’re a family place,” said Hawkins.

Her daughter and co-owner Natasha Thompson said the response from the community has been overwhelming.

“It’s very humbling to know people care,” Thompson said as she wiped away tears.

That support is motivating the family to repair and reopen.

“We’re hoping soon,” said Thompson. “This is Christmas time and this is our busiest time of year. Our best time of year. We love it as much as the customers love it because of the events that go on in town. It brings people in and brings business in so that helps us and helps the city.”

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

5 Hurt After Tornado Damages Businesses, Vehicles and Homes in Grapevine

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

Grapevine Mayor Describes Taking Shelter From Tornado

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

Storm Damage Around Grapevine After Severe Storms on Dec. 13, 2022

For severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to occur there needs to be wind shear and instability. The instability usually comes from daytime heating and humidity. But in this case, the storms occurred very early in the day without access to daytime heating. The forecast assumed that the instability would be limited, therefore the tornado threat would be minimized.

What happened is that both the humidity and temperature increased through the night Monday night into Tuesday morning. This increase was not expected. This led to higher amounts of instability that the thunderstorms were able to tap into. The strong wind shear combined with the higher instability helped create an environment more favorable for tornadoes.

While the majority of our North Texas tornadoes occur in April and May, December tornadoes can occur. Since 1950, there have been three Decembers that produced double-digit tornadoes. It’s possible that 2022 joins that list after the National Weather Service completes its damage survey in the coming days.

It’s good to keep in mind that even though December tornadoes are not common, they can occur. In fact tornadoes can occur anytime throughout the year if the proper severe weather ingredients are in place.

Grapevine Dec 14, 2022

Cleanup Underway in Grapevine After Tornado Causes Damage to Buildings, Power Outages

Collin County Dec 14, 2022

Collin County City Cleans Up After Tornado Damages Homes, Buildings

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The NWS said survey crews have been out looking at damage across North Texas in the days following the outbreak.

Of the confirmed tornadoes, six occurred across Tarrant County in areas around Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, North Richland Hills and in Grapevine where five people were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.

• Two of the three tornadoes that touched down near the joint reserve base were rated EF-0 while the third was an EF-1. The first, an EF-0, touched down near the air traffic control tower at 8:10 a.m. A minute later another EF-0 touched down near an aircraft hanger and continued toward the food court. The third, an EF1, touched down in nearby Marion Sansom Park and caused damage to trees. All of the tornadoes were spawned from the same parent storm but all lifted and reformed causing discontinuous damage. Each touchdown is counted as a separate tornado.
• In Grapevine, two EF-1 tornado tracks were confirmed — a longer track through most of Grapevine with 110 mph winds and a separate short track over Grapevine Mills Mall with 100 mph winds.
• In North Richland Hills, the NWS said an EF-1 tornado with max winds of 90 mph left a track 1.5 miles long.
• An EF-2 tornado was confirmed in Wise County where at least two homes were destroyed by winds reaching 125 mph.
• An EF-2 with max winds of 115 mph, was confirmed west of Paris in Lamar County. That tornado tracked from near Petty to Hopewell.
• An EF-0 was confirmed in Cooke County near Callisburg.
• In southeast Palo Pinto County, south of Santo, an NWS survey team confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down Tuesday with maximum winds of 110 mph.
• An EF-2 tornado with maximum winds of 135 mph was confirmed south of Ranger in Eastland County.
• An EF-2 tornado brought winds up to 125 mph along a track from Blue Ridge in Collin County to Leonard in Fannin County.
• An EF-1 with max winds of 90 mph was confirmed near Wolfe City in northern Hunt County.
• An EF-0 with max winds of 85 mph was confirmed in Parker County, where it briefly tracked on the southwest side of Greenwood, southwest of Weatherford.
• An EF-0 with max winds of 80 mph affected western Parker County where tree damage was noted.

TORNADO WARNING HISTORY FOR DEC. 13, 2022

• The first Tornado Warning of the day was issued in Jacksboro and Vinyard at 5:09 a.m. as severe thunderstorms moved northeast across North Texas Tuesday morning. At 5:31 a.m., a Tornado Warning was issued in Palo Pinto County for Mineral Wells and Cool as the storms pushed east.
• Four minutes later, at 5:35 a.m., another Tornado Warning was issued for Huckabay. At 5:58 a.m. the NWS urged anyone in the path of the tornado warned storm in Eastland and Erath counties to seek shelter.
• At 6:09 a.m. the fourth Tornado Warning was issued, this time for De Leon, Duster and Rucker in Comanche County.
• At 6:13 a.m. a Tornado Warning was issued for Parker and Wise counties including Springtown, Paradise and Agnes. At 6:36 a.m., as the storms pushed northeast, the sixth warning of the morning was issued and included Weatherford, Willow Park and Hudson Oaks.
• Just before 7 a.m. a Tornado Warning was issued for Decatur, Krum and Ponder and included a shelter warning.
• At 7:21 a.m., a Tornado Warning was issued for Slidell in Wise County and at 7:32 a.m. a Tornado Warning was issued in Cooke and Grayson counties including Gainesville, Preston and Sherwood Shores. Just two minutes later, a Tornado Warning was also issued in Hood County for Granbury, Pecan Plantation and Oak Trail Shores.
• Severe storms began pushing into the Metroplex at about 7:30 a.m., with the first Tornado Warning in Tarrant County being issued at 7:35 a.m. for Keller, Saginaw and Azle. The NWS said at 7:40 a.m. that the storm, with embedded tornadic circulations, continued pushing northeast.
• At 8:11 a.m. Tornado Warnings were issued in Fort Worth, Arlington and North Richland Hills. NWS said four minutes later that a radar-confirmed tornado was spotted with debris in Sansom Park and River Oaks, moving northeast.
• At 8:17 a.m. the storm continued moving through Tarrant County and people in Saginaw, Blue Mound, Haltom City, and North Fort Worth were all warned to take shelter.
• At 8:48 a.m. a Tornado Warning was issued for Tarrant and Denton counties that included Grapevine, Flower Mound and Lewisville. Video reports later showed a tornado crossing Texas 114 near Texas 26 and there were several reports of damaged businesses, homes and vehicles.
• As the storm moved northeast toward Collin County, a Tornado Warning was issued at 9:12 a.m. for McKinney, Frisco and Allen with the NWS tracking the storm along Texas 121 from South Frisco to North Plano.
• As the line of storms moved into East Texas, a Tornado Warning was issued for Fannin County including Bonham, Leonard and Honey Grove at 10:06 a.m. At 10:20 a.m. the warning was expanded to include Honey grove, Roxton and Ladonia.
• In Lamar County, a Tornado Warning was issued at 10:52 a.m. for Toco and along the Red River for Arthur City and Powderly.

Wise County Dec 13, 2022

Homes Destroyed as Tornado-Warned Storm Rips Through Wise County Tuesday Morning

North Richland Hills Dec 13, 2022

Homes, Businesses Damaged in North Richland Hills; Firefighters Report Rotation

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

5 Hurt After Tornado Damages Businesses, Vehicles and Homes in Grapevine

Six people were inside one of the houses when the roof blew off.

“As soon as I opened the door I saw a tornado passing by next to me,” said Michael Lopez, a resident of another home who shot cellphone video of the passing storm. It left his home mostly untouched.

The video he recorded shows what looks like a tornado swirling amid the flashes of lightning.

“I saw the tornado heading away from me. I saw all the power lines exploding and everything,” Lopez said.

Once it passed, he went to check on neighbors, including the Gonzalez family.

“I had gotten an alert on my phone that there was a tornado warning, but I didn’t know it was like here at our location,” Isela Gonzalez said.

She was in the bathroom about to take a shower and take her kids to school when she said the roof disappeared and the home splintered around them.

“And then I heard all the glass shatter, and I just grabbed a hold of whatever I could in the restroom to hold on to it,” she said.

Her three children, her mother and a sister were all inside the house and they all survived.

But the home is wrecked. The content and parts of the roof are scattered all around.

Neighbors and relatives quickly stepped in to help the family.

“Everybody’s been so nice, brought us food, clothes,” she said.

A bigger house nearby also received heavy damage. Michael Lopez said that family wants privacy, but they also survived the strong storm.

“No one was hurt. No one was injured. Everything was OK,” Lopez said.

Isela Gonzalez said her family also feels fortunate after witnessing all the destruction.

“We’re so lucky to be alive because this could have been a lot worse,” she said.

No serious injuries were reported in Wise County.

And the Gonzalez family also recently arranged home insurance. They have coverage and expect to have a hotel roof over their heads Tuesday night.

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

5 Hurt After Tornado Damages Businesses, Vehicles and Homes in Grapevine

storms Dec 13, 2022

Photos of Storms That Produced Tornadoes on Dec. 13, 2022

storm damage Dec 13, 2022

Your Storm Damage Photos – Dec. 13, 2022

A Tornado Watch was issued in the area at about 9:12 a.m. with the first warning of a possible tornado going out at 9:35 a.m. According to the National Weather Service, a video shared online showed a tornado crossing west of Texas 114 near Baylor Scott and White Medical Center – Grapevine at about 9:37 a.m.

That’s where NBC 5 spotted visible damage to the roof of the Sam’s Club warehouse at Texas 114 and Texas 26. Photos shared by someone inside the store showed paneling blown off the walls, damage to the roof and a lot of water inside the store.

About four miles to the northeast, at Grapevine Mills Mall, heavy damage was reported at the mall’s food court where several skylights and interior lighting were damaged.

A Discount Tire location in Grapevine was also damaged by the storm.

Damage reports in the area included missing paneling on roofs and walls from area businesses, a tractor-trailer tossed into a tree and dozens of damaged tree limbs. Along Lucas Drive near Northwest Highway, several homes had visible damage to roofs, trees and road signs.

Video shared with NBC 5 showed power flashes, debris flying through the air and sheet metal rolling off of roofs.

A resident who spoke with NBC 5 said he heard tornado alerts on his phone along with sirens before he heard the unmistakable sound of a “freight train” outside. The man said he and his son took cover in an interior room as the storm passed. Afterward, he said most of the damage was to downed limbs and some evidence of metal sheeting flying off nearby roofs.

Grapevine Police confirmed five people reported injuries but none of the injuries were considered serious and those who required hospitalization are expected to be treated and released. No other injuries have been reported.

At Mustang Elite Car Wash and Lube Center, one of their buildings was hit by the tornado and sustained damage. But the owner is relieved that everybody is OK.

“No injuries. We are very lucky, and feel very blessed,” said owner Ed Warden.

Grapevine Dec 14, 2022

Cleanup Underway in Grapevine After Tornado Causes Damage to Buildings, Power Outages

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

Cleanup Begins in Grapevine After Confirmed Tornado

Grapevine Dec 13, 2022

Grapevine Mayor Describes Taking Shelter From Tornado

“It was like a sideways wave going on in the window, it was really crazy to see,” said Trinity Thompson, whose mother owns the Waffle Way restaurant on Northwest Highway.

There was one customer at the restaurant who yelled at everyone to get down, and they went to the back.

“I think we are just trying to clean up right now, just trying to clear the grass and everything, the debris and the glass,” said Thompson.

Homeowners on Lucas Drive saw it as well, and are now cleaning up too.

“I was actually standing in the back window in the back bedroom, and that is where it came through. The majority of the debris and everything came through right at the back corner of the house, between the house and the back garage,” said homeowner Randy Popiel.

Mike Garen owns Mike’s Outlaw Customs, a business across the street. A tree is now in front of his office building, and he walked NBC 5 through his very damaged yard.

“Luckily everybody is safe. You know, I mean I can replace whatever I got here. It is no big deal,” said Garen.

Discount Tire along SH 114 took a hit from Tuesday’s tornado. A manager says employees and a customer hid behind a wall just before the windows to the lobby shattered. Injuries were minor, the manager said.

“For us to come through this with just some minor scratches, it’s unbelievable,” said Chuck Paschke, owner of Christian Brothers Automotive next door.

Police said crews are assessing damage in the city and that it’s not immediately clear if there will be a delay in city services, such as trash collection.

The strength of the tornado reported near Grapevine will be determined by damage assessment crews from the National Weather Service.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, the number of customers without power was about 390, down from more than 3,000 late Tuesday afternoon.

storm damage Dec 13, 2022

Your Storm Damage Photos – Dec. 13, 2022

hail Dec 13, 2022

Your Hail Photos – Dec. 13, 2022

storms Dec 13, 2022

Photos of Storms That Produced Tornadoes on Dec. 13, 2022

When a tornado hit Lamar County Friday night, Dakota Hudson and Lauren Patterson feared they would not survive.

“We could feel the house start lifting up around us. We could hear the creaking and breaking,” Hudson said.

When the couple emerged from their bathroom, everything around them was destroyed, including their home, a family member’s house next door and all their neighbors’ homes.

“God had his hand over our entire community,” said Hudson. “Looking at this destruction it’s hard to fathom how anyone could survive it.”

As the couple began checking on neighbors and learned everyone was physically OK, Hudson realized the engagement ring he’d just purchased to surprise Patterson was lost in the debris.

“Needle in a haystack doesn’t come close to what we were looking for,” said Hudson.

That’s until the Paris Junior College softball team stopped by the property Tuesday to offer help cleaning up.

Once the team heard about the missing ring, they got to work.

“I basically made my mind up. I was going to find the ring,” outfielder Kate Rainey said.

Rainey and her teammates searched for hours until she spotted a little miracle buried in the mud.

Though it wasn’t the proposal he had planned, Hudson decided there was no better moment to pop the question. Covered in mud, he dropped to one knee, surrounded by debris and with a team of softball players cheering him on.

“We’re safe. We’re here. Everybody’s alright. It’s a miracle the ring was found. What better time to do it?” Hudson said.

She said yes immediately.

“This was the light in a very dark moment. And it is still a dark moment, but this has given us reason to breathe and smile a little,” said Patterson.

The couple is staying in a hotel until they determine their next steps. They hope to rebuild on the same property and say they are extremely grateful for the love and support they’ve received from the community during this challenging time.

SEVERE WEATHER

Lamar County Nov 9, 2022

Lamar County Tornado Upgraded to EF-4 With 170MPH Winds

Lamar County Nov 5, 2022

Lamar County Residents Clean Up After EF-3 Tornado Rips Through

tornado Nov 4, 2022

Video of North Texas Tornado Shows Dangerous Speed of Storm

The update Wednesday upgraded the twister from an EF-3 with 160mph winds to an EF-4 with 170mph winds, the NWS said.

A preliminary survey showed EF-3 tornado damage on Saturday, but survey teams had since found damage on one Lamar County home that was consistent with an EF-4 tornado, the NWS said. The survey team wasn’t able to reach that location on Saturday, the day after the storm.

The long-track tornado had a width of 1,350 yards and traveled 22 miles on the ground from Toco, near U.S. 82, and tracked northwest of Paris through Powderly, toward the Red River, before falling apart at 4:48 p.m. near Ord, Oklahoma. There were no fatalities or injuries reported with this tornado.

The NWS said the EF-4 tornado was the strongest measured in the outbreak that stretched from North Texas to northwestern Arkansas. The fall storm spawned tornadoes and produced flash flooding, killing at least two people, injuring others and leaving homes and buildings in ruins.

WEATHER CONNECTION

tornado Nov 7, 2022

4 EF-2, EF-3 Tornadoes Confirmed East of Metroplex Friday

Lamar County Nov 5, 2022

Lamar County Residents Clean Up After EF-3 Tornado Rips Through

texas Nov 3, 2022

Homes Damaged as Strong Fall Storm System Brings Tornadoes, Record Rainfall

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

NWS survey crews began canvassing areas where the damage had been reported and where data suggested tornadoes may have touched down and confirmed one tornado touched down in Lamar County, one in Hopkins County, one in Rains and Hopkins County and one in Henderson County.

LAMAR COUNTY TORNADO

Preliminary information from the NWS indicated a long-track EF-3 tornado with peak winds of 160 mph touched down in Lamar County at 4:19 p.m. The tornado had a width of 1350 yards and traveled 22 miles on the ground from Toco, near U.S. Highway 82, and tracked northwest of Paris through Powderly, toward the Red River, before falling apart at 4:48 p.m. near Ord, Oklahoma. There were no fatalities or injuries reported with this tornado.

The NWS said several dozen homes, businesses and outbuildings were damaged across western and northern Lamar County where damage was consistent with EF-3 intensity. Along the track of the tornado, storm survey teams found several homes and small buildings without their roofs and with most internal and external walls destroyed. There were also a number of power poles snapped in the area.

The United Way of Lamar County has established a Tornado Response Fund to help those affected by the tornado. The Red Cross also has an established service center at the Lamar Church of Christ in Paris at 3535 Lamar Ave.

RAINS/HOPKINS COUNTY TORNADO

Preliminary information from the NWS indicated an EF-1 tornado with peak winds of 100 mph touched down in Rains and Hopkins counties at 5:08 p.m. The tornado had a width of 50 yards and traveled 4.5 miles on the ground near Emory before falling apart about six minutes later at 5:14 p.m. near Point in Rains County. There were no fatalities or injuries reported with this tornado.

The NWS said the tornado started in northern Rains County and crossed Farm-to-Market 514 near Daughtery. Minor damage to carports and large trees was seen in the area. The tornado continues south into Hopkins County where additional tree damage was spotted.

Lamar County Nov 5, 2022

Lamar County Residents Clean Up After EF-3 Tornado Rips Through

texas Nov 3, 2022

Homes Damaged as Strong Fall Storm System Brings Tornadoes, Record Rainfall

texas Nov 5, 2022

At Least 1 Dead, Dozens Hurt as Tornadoes Rip Apart Homes in Texas and Oklahoma

SULPHUR SPRINGS TORNADO

Preliminary information from the NWS indicated an EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 120 mph touched down in Hopkins County at 5:15 p.m. The tornado had a width of 160 yards and traveled 3 miles on the ground near Emory, west of Texas 19, and tracked northeast toward Sulphur Springs before dissipating at 5:19 p.m. There were no fatalities or injuries reported with this tornado.

The NWS said eyewitness accounts and video showed the second Emory-area tornado started in a field west of County Road 1164 and moved northeast where it hit a home causing EF-2 damage, ripping off the roof and attic. The tornado hit a few other homes near County Road 1181, including one that was pushed off its support.

HENDERSON COUNTY TORNADO

Preliminary information from the NWS indicated a long-track EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 115 mph touched down in Henderson County at 5:35 p.m. The tornado had a width of 150 yards and traveled 15 miles on the ground from south of Malakoff, west of Farm-to-Market Road 3441 near the Anding Acres Wedding Venu, and tracked northeast through Athens before falling apart at 5:48 p.m. three miles southwest of Murchison, not far from the Henderson County Regional Fair Park. There were no fatalities or injuries reported with this tornado.

As the tornado tracked northeast toward Athens, it damaged a family home along County Road 1208 along with outbuildings and trees. In Athens, trees were uprooted and snapped and a Dollar General had its windows blown out. The worst damage, the NWS said, was to the Athens Steel Building Corporation whose building along NE Loop 7 was partially collapsed by the tornado.

Storms Friday were forecast to be intense with the threat of damaging winds, hail and the possibility of tornadoes. NBC 5 Chief Meteorologist Rick Mitchell had warned for days that “all modes of severe weather” were possible as favorable conditions for storm development were expected ahead of a cold front.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott put state resources on standby Thursday and directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management “to swiftly provide all necessary resources to protect our communities.” The Texas A&M Forest Service said Friday night that its resources were sent to Northeast Texas to help with the storm response.

A Tornado Watch was issued early Friday afternoon and it wasn’t long until the first warning was issued by the National Weather Service. The Tornado Watch expired for all of North Texas at 8 p.m. after storms moved east out of the area.

Flight tracking website FlightAware showed hundreds of delays and cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport combined. By 7:30 p.m., DFW Airport saw 636 flight delays and 253 cancellations; Love Field had 105 delays and 111 cancellations.

By the time storms rolled out, The National Weather Service said a record amount of rainfall — 3.01 inches of rain — was recorded at DFW Airport, breaking the previous record of 1.77 inches set in 1956.

Chasing the storms, NBC 5 crews headed east into Hopkins, Lamar and Henderson counties where there were active tornado warnings and reports of significant damage left behind by the storm.

HOME DESTROYED IN SULPHUR SPRINGS

“It happened so quick, a blink of an eye. A twinkling of an eye. Here and gone,” David Talley said. “It was so quick you didn’t have time to think.”

Talley said the home he and his wife Mary have shared for 15 years appears to be a total loss. Talley added he wasn’t too worried about it and had faith the Lord would take care of it.

“Just pray about it and the Lord will take care of everything,” Talley said.

He said his wife was a little shaken up but the couple was otherwise unhurt aside from a few small scratches from flying glass.

“The Lord was with us, that’s all I can tell you,” Talley said.

Deputy Fire Marshal Rodney Caudle said after hitting the Talleys’ home, the tornado continued across a pasture before hitting at least two other houses on FM 1180, off of Highway 19.

Caudle said he knew of no serious injuries.

Friday night, several homes in the area remained without power.

10 HURT; SHELTER OPENS IN LAMAR COUNTY

A confirmed tornado ripped through Lamar County, damaging or destroying at least 50 homes and leaving multiple injuries, the county sheriff’s office says.

At least 10 people were hospitalized with injuries from the storm, including two people who were critically hurt but expected to recover, law enforcement officials said Friday night.

Lamar County Judge Brandon Bell has declared a disaster for the county. The damage assessment and cleanup are expected to take several days.

In the city of Midcity, located just south of the Red River and about 120 miles northeast of Dallas, neighbors say at least a dozen homes are either damaged or destroyed.

Buildings that took a direct hit were almost unrecognizable. Families say they hid in closets and bathrooms and prayed as the tornado passed. One girl said the closet where her family hid was the only part of the house where the roof didn’t cave in.

Another neighbor said he rushed home from work to find only a bathroom still standing.

Craig Holcomb said he took cover with his wife in a bathtub after they looked outside and saw clouds swirling.

“Thirty seconds went back outside and I look over here and all I could see was debris flying everywhere. You could hear- I make fun of people always talking about the train noise, but it sounded just like it. all you could hear was a loud whistle and I saw debris flying everywhere,” said Holcomb.

There are also reports of damage to homes in nearby Powderly and Caveness.

The Lamar County Office of Emergency Management is asking people to stay away from damaged areas.

People are packing up what they can to go stay somewhere safe. The Red Cross has opened a shelter at the Lamar Church of Christ for those who need a place to go:

The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office says, so far, there are no reported fatalities.

The National Weather Service will determine the strength of the tornado.

YOUR PICTURES

Nov 4, 2022

Your Rainbow Photos – November 4, 2022

severe weather Nov 4, 2022

Your Storm Photos – November 4, 2022

HUGE TREE SPLITS IN DALLAS

In an old neighborhood just off the Dallas North Tollway, ferocious winds split a huge tree in three.

It landed on a pickup, a roof, and a yard.

“We were just inside and felt a big shake like it was an earthquake I guess. It wasn’t lightning because the whole house shook,” said Grady Schleier.

Schleier says the tree was probably as old as his house — 100 years old.

“It was an old tree. Beautiful tree. It was an oak. I’m going to miss it,” he said.

Deb Schweikert saw intense rain at her house in Denton. At a loading dock at DFW Airport, the heaviest flooding workers there say they’ve ever seen.

And all across North Texas, these early November severe storms reminded everyone Mother Nature can flex her muscle any time of the year.

Make sure you stay weather aware! If you haven’t already, download our mobile apps to get weather alerts on your phone and watch streaming weather coverage on mobile devices as well as on Roku, Fire TV and more. See our suite of digital products here.

weather quiz Nov 2, 2022

Weather Quiz: Ceilometer

weather quiz Nov 1, 2022

Weather Quiz: How Wind Affects DFW Landings

It’s one of three new structures replacing destroyed schools.

Elizalde said she hopes they lure private school students back to public education.

The original Thomas Jefferson High School was more than 60 years old and it was receiving upgrades when the tornado wrecked all that in October 2019.

“But now we’re taking something that was destruction and now we’re going to be able to have a debut,” Elizalde said.

The renovated Thomas Jefferson is different in many ways. Classrooms are larger than the 1956 design.

“The classrooms were built much smaller in the original blueprint because the specifications were different,” she said.

The big new library will be much better, with all the modern media and not just a bunch of books.

The new TJ has a nice baseball field and a nice football practice field courtesy of donations from professional teams.

“It is a private school education at a public school price because it’s free,” Elizalde said.

Attracting families that spend money for private schools in North Dallas is a dream with the $158 million TJ renovation that includes a complete replacement of Cary Middle School, adjacent to the high school.

The Cary structure was leveled to become a new kindergarten through 8th-grade Walnut Hill International Leadership Academy. Those two buildings both open in January.

The third destroyed building, the former Walnut Hill Elementary School on Midway Road, will become a career institute offering instruction in trades for students from five Dallas high schools. That building will open next fall.

“Our vision is to keep the students that we have and reenergize folk to say, ‘Huh? Maybe I’ll invest in my kids’ college education and I can send my kids to public education and use those dollars for college,’” she said.

The current superintendent was a lower-level administrator when the buildings were destroyed. Now, she hopes to oversee a new era in North Dallas public education.

Edwin Flores, the school trustee for North Dallas, and Karen Craft, Thomas Jefferson PTSA leader, both told NBC 5 they wish the new building had come faster, but they are pleased with the results.

Students have attended classes at temporary locations since the tornado.

The NWS confirmed the tornado touched down just south of the Williamson County city of Jarrell, located about 40 miles north along Interstate 35 from Austin.

The NWS told KXAN-TV in Austin there was a “concentrated area of tornadic damage” as well as damage from straight-line winds. A photo tweeted by the NWS showed the tornado began on the southwest side of Jarrell, crossed I-35 and ended just west of the city of Bartlett.

A Tornado Warning had been issued shortly after 8:45 p.m. in the area where the tornado touched down.

A ground survey will determine the tornado’s strength, length and size.

Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said an aerial survey showed about three dozen homes or businesses had light to severe damage. At least one home that was under construction had collapsed.

Gravell said there was no loss of life. KXAN-TV reported one person in an 18-wheeler that overturned had injuries that were not life-threatening.

“This is the third tornado to hit Jarrell or the Jarrell area in the last seven months. It’s a community that has been really hit hard by the weather,” Williamson County Commissioner Russ Boles said.

One of the buildings hardest hit was a local fire station that had part of its roof and doors blown off.

“I got a text from one of my guys that we were under a Tornado Warning. And just as I was reading that text the power went on out my house and then I got another text that the garage doors have been blown off of the station,” said Chief Ron Stewart, Williamson County ESD 5.

“We were out here until about 2, 3 in the morning assessing damage, making sure everybody was OK,” Stewart added.

In nearby neighborhoods, fences were blown down and several roofs were damaged. A number of tractor-trailers were overturned in the powerful winds.

“I got a call late last night when the storm came through, saying that we had trailers out the road,” said Doug Meadows, owner of Rolling M Trailers. He spoke to NBC DFW from a forklift he used to get the vehicles back onto his property.

“We have been lucky. We have been here for 22 years and this is the first time we’ve had something like this happen,” Meadows said.

weather Oct 24, 2022

Monday Storms Travel Across North Texas

storm chances Oct 23, 2022

Rounds of Storms Deliver Much-Needed Rainfall Monday With Cold Front, Wind Advisory

Today, the Dallas Independent School District announced Thomas Jefferson High School and Walnut Hill Elementary Schools will re-open in January. They were among the three schools that took direct hits in the tornado and have been under construction.

There is also an update on a new Dallas Fire-Rescue Station 41 along Royal Lane. The previous station was destroyed in the tornado.

Crews spent Thursday clearing the way for construction to start on a new fire station. Construction is expected to begin sometime in the next two weeks, according to DFR spokesman Jason Evans.

The E-F3 tornado with winds of up to 140 miles an hour touched down near Dallas Love Field on Sunday night, Oct. 20, 2019.

On the ground for 32 minutes, the twister carved out a 15-mile path of destruction in North Dallas. Hundreds of structures were damaged or destroyed, including schools, large retailers, homes and infrastructure. The storm caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage, making it the costliest tornado event in Texas history.

However, the damage fell short for FEMA’s disaster declaration.

Steve Sumter was in his Preston Hollow condominium when he received a frantic text from a friend.

“He said: take cover, you’re in the path,” he recalled. “As soon as I looked at that, the windows blew in.”

His beloved Chihuahuas panicked and ran in different directions.

“As soon as I picked him up, one of the cinder blocks fell in behind me right where he was, so I was literally seconds before I lost a dog,” said Sumter.

Meanwhile, Dallas Fire Rescue Assistant Chief of Emergency Operations Justin Ball raced to Harry Hines Boulevard from his house after receiving several calls for service.

“[I] noticed a colossal amount of damage,” said Ball.

Ball oversaw rescue efforts that night, along with other DFR leaders.

Ball, along with police officers and city workers, spent the night searching 900 structures for anyone in need of rescue, fearing a significant death toll.

“I was waiting for a count,” he said. “I was in the command van waiting for people to be found. Even the next day, I expected some fatalities.”

Fortunately, no one was killed.

“I believe the response from the fire department, police, the other city entities, we had such a rapid response that I believe we saved people from themselves. People coming out of their structures and coming into contact with power lines,” said Ball.

DFR has made improvements following the destructive tornado, including creating a new incident command team for such emergencies, according to Ball.

He said they’re also now equipped with a new command van equipped to help print maps to better respond to large-scale disasters.

In the years since, some residents and business owners have struggled to rebuild, a task made more challenging by the COVID-19 pandemic and rising building costs.

“As an HOA, I think we’ve done really well to rebuild, re-landscape and to get everybody back into their homes,” said Sumter. “It took two years and seven months.”

Sumter’s new condo has a deeper foundation and thicker walls in an effort to better protect it during storms.

OCTOBER 2019 TORNADO OUTBREAK

Inside the Storm Oct 19, 2021

October 2019 Tornadoes: Destruction in Dallas

tornado Oct 20, 2022

Weather Quiz: Dallas' Worst Tornado?

Dallas Oct 20, 2021

Two Years After Tornado Teachers Find Benefit in Storm's Disruption

Video caught by storm chasers shows the tornado moving slowly over the ground in the area west of Lubbock, and debris and dirt can be heard hitting their vehicle as they approach.

The huge tornado was estimated to be about a mile wide as it grew in strength, eventually touching down a few miles from Morton. It was one of at least three twisters to hit the South Plains on Monday.

No deaths or injuries were reported from the tornado, though the storm did cause some damage and knocked out power for some in the area. 

climate change Apr 22, 2022

Female Storm Chasers Pursue Passion as Climate Change Creates Extreme Weather

Business May 12, 2022

Ahead of Hurricane Season and Summer Storms, Be Sure You Know How Weather Events Are Covered by Your Homeowners Insurance

The town of 4,200 turned to cleanup Saturday, a day after a tornado with 140 mph winds pummeled Gaylord, killing two people, injuring more than 40 and shocking residents who are more familiar with snowstorms than spring windstorms.

A utility reported much progress in restoring electricity, though thousands still lacked power. Some roads remained clogged with downed poles and other wreckage.

“We have a lot of debris to clear,” said state police Lt. Derrick Carroll.

Two people in their 70s who lived at the Nottingham Forest mobile home park died, state police said. It was among the first sites hit by the tornado, which was rated an EF3 by the National Weather Service on a scale of 0-5.

“There have been trailers picked up and turned over on top of each other. Just a very large debris field,” said Chris Martin, Otsego County fire chief. Martin said crews used heavy equipment to conduct a secondary search of the area.

He said there’s “probably 95% destruction in there.”

Gaylord, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, is a popular destination for skiers and snowmobilers in the winter and golfers in the summer. It doesn’t have tornado sirens, though anyone with a mobile phone got a “code red” warning from the weather service about 10 minutes before the tornado hit, Carroll said.

Video posted online showed a dark funnel cloud approaching as anxious drivers looked on or slowly drove away on area roads.

“Everyone in Michigan is going to wrap our arms around those families and everyone who is working together to recover here,” Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist said during a visit.

Betty Wisniewski, 87, avoided injury even though the tornado significantly damaged her house, said son Steve Wisniewski, who lives next door.

“Luckily she was OK — rosary in hand,” he said from a ladder while attaching plastic to his windows. “She was praying. Pretty amazing.”

Gaylord Police Chief Frank Claeys said the immediate moments after the tornado were tough for first responders.

“We were searching in places where we knew the occupants. We were calling them out by name,” Claeys said. “It’s a lot more personal when our officers know the people who live in those homes.”

John Boris of the weather service post in Gaylord said the tornado passed through the community in about three minutes but was on the ground in the region for 26 minutes — a “fairly long” time.

“We don’t get a whole lot of tornadoes,” said Boris, a science and operations officer. “In the state of Michigan, in general, we typically average about 15 or so (a year) and more of those are downstate than they are up to the north. It’s pretty unusual.”

Indeed, the last notable windstorm was in 1998 when 100 mph straight-line winds raked Gaylord.

Boris said warm, 80-degree air earlier Friday and strong winds moving east across Lake Michigan were key conditions producing the tornado.

A link to climate change probably doesn’t fit, he said.

“It’s very difficult to attribute something very specific like this to a large-scale signal like that,” Boris said. “If we had these more frequently, that may be a signal.”

___

White reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer John Flesher contributed to this report.

Viral video star Riley Leon has been enlisted to be the face of ‘Click It or Ticket’ for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Leon’s red truck flipped when a tornado swept across a central Texas highway, while he was able to drive away, the pickup was heavily damaged.

“It was a couple days after that I realized, I’m thankful I wore my seatbelt that day because if not the accident would have been more tragic.”

Riley said he only suffered a few cuts on his arms and a minor fracture to his back.

While his red Silverado pickup was still driveable, a North Texas Chevrolet dealer gifted him a 2022 Silverado. In March he told us he planned to fix the truck.

Riley was driving to a job interview at Whataburger, a job he got and started in March.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

There were no reports of serious injuries following the Wednesday night tornadoes, but the system caused flooding in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and more stormy weather took place Thursday.

Significant damage was reported in the Oklahoma city of Seminole, about 60 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, where Gov. Kevin Stitt said damage assessments were underway after he toured the area Thursday.

“(We’re) getting all the resources and supplies that the city wants and needs,” including generators, Stitt said. “Thank the Lord that nobody was hurt” and no deaths have been reported.

The National Weather Service said it found damage in Seminole from an EF2 tornado, which has winds speeds of up to 135 mph.

More than 2,900 customers remained without power in Seminole late Thursday afternoon, according to Oklahoma Gas & Electric, more than 63% of the utility customers in the city.

The Academy of Seminole took a direct hit but no one was injured, the school said on Facebook.

Video footage from Oklahoma TV station KOCO showed a tornado hit a marijuana farm in the nearby town of Maud.

Several roads and highways were closed Thursday morning in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas because of flash flooding.

In Bixby, Oklahoma, located south of Tulsa, officials opened a temporary shelter at a church after thunderstorms flooded some homes and streets in one neighborhood.

In East Texas, a tornado on Thursday damaged several campers and buildings at an RV park in Rusk County, Sheriff Johnwayne Valdez told KTRE-TV. The Rusk County Office of Emergency Management reported one person was injured after being hit by a tree.

On Wednesday, a “large and dangerous tornado” was spotted in the rural community of Lockett, about 170 miles northwest of Dallas, said the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma.

The weather service said it found damage near Lockett from an EF3 tornado, which has winds speeds of up to 165 mph.

There were no significant injuries or deaths to residents in Wilbarger County, where Lockett is located, Sheriff Brian Fritze told KAUZ-TV. He said several homes and barns appeared to sustain extensive damage.

In Washington County in northwest Arkansas, officials performed more than 30 water rescues as heavy rainfall flooded homes and streets in the cities of Fayetteville and Johnson, KHBS/KHOG-TV reported.

The storms on Wednesday and Thursday were the latest in several rounds of severe weather in the central United States. Last week, a tornado damaged more than 1,000 buildings in the Wichita suburb of Andover, Kansas. Three University of Oklahoma meteorology students died in a car crash while returning from storm chasing.

The storms, which were moving east into other southern U.S. states, could bring more tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds, and the threat of severe weather will continue Friday in parts of the South and over the weekend in the central Plains and Midwest, the weather service said.

The National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday afternoon that an EF-2 tornado caused damage in Johnson County, just north of Egan.

In the town of Venus, Jeff Wilson’s home received some damage. He said he’s been there for more than 20 years and hasn’t seen a storm quite like the one on Monday night.

“This is the first one that actually hit our place,” he said. “I heard high winds and the hail. Then I heard the metal. I ducked inside the house, figured out that was the safest place for me.”

A carport and other structures on his property were also damaged. He said he’s looking at about $35,000 worth of damage on his property.

“It’s only money,” he said. “No injuries. We all came through it. Nerves are frayed, of course.”

Wilson said his son was shaken up after some of the debris from the carport crashed into his traveling trailer that was parked underneath.

“He lives in a travel trailer and it damaged the trailer pretty badly,” said Wilson. “It’s going to be a total loss and he was more shook up than I was, but outside of nerves everything is going to be alright.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Alvarado Fire Captain Brad Hargrove said several crews were working the fire in the 2400 block of Luisa Lane when the storm hit, forcing them to take shelter.

“We look up and it’s coming right over the top of us,” Hargrove said. “We did see it. The debris field was hitting our apparatus, and I made the command to make sure all of our staff retreated into their apparatus and we rode it out on the scene.”

“It was the most eventful command that I ever rode out in 24 years,” Hargrove said.

No one was hurt and crews went back to work battling the fire once the storm passed.

The fire, fueled by piles of wood pallets, burned through the overnight hours and will likely continue burning for three or four days, a fire official told NBC 5 News. The flames are contained to the site and no nearby buildings are threatened.

Crews believe the fire was ignited by lightning at about 10:30 p.m. but the cause has not yet been confirmed.

More than a dozen fire agencies responded to the fire, though a majority of the crews were released was the fire was allowed to burn out.

Alvarado is among the areas where the National Weather Service will survey storm damage Tuesday.

The TCEQ has visited the site to monitor air quality.

Severe thunderstorms pushed through the Metroplex Monday night, spawning six tornadoes in Collin, Ellis and Johnson counties while drenching other areas in several inches of rain and pounding hail while cutting power to thousands.

Damage reports received by the National Weather Service included damaged buildings and trees, downed power lines, and overturned vehicles.

Details about tornado reports were confirmed by NWS survey crews throughout the week before being finalized Thursday afternoon. Details on the tornadoes are below.

All other damage is being attributed to straight-line winds. The NWS said Thursday that the storm that went through Johnson and Ellis counties had a strong path of wind south of the tornado that indicated 70-80mph winds.

The NWS said damage surveyed in Kaufman and Van Zandt counties was also due to straight-line winds along a bowing segment.

FOUR TORNADOES HIT JOHNSON COUNTY

The National Weather Service confirmed Thursday that there were four different tornadoes that touched down in Johnson County, an EF-2 and three EF-0s.

Tuesday afternoon, the NWS confirmed an EF-2 tornado hit Monday night in Johnson County, just north of Egan. Meteorologists said the winds with this storm were around 112 mph.

Some homes were reportedly damaged in Johnson County where a tornado touched down at about 10:41 p.m. near Alvarado heading toward Lillian. The circulation continued pushing east toward Ellis County where it appeared to pass over downtown Midlothian before transitioning to a straight-line wind threat.

NWS survey crews said the tornado, with a width of about 150 yards, traveled nearly 10 miles in 13 minutes.

In an interview on NBC 5 Today Tuesday morning, Johnson County Emergency Management Director Jamie Moore said at least one person was hospitalized from injuries sustained during the storm. He said about a half-dozen homes had their roofs blown off.

Johnson County residents are being asked to complete a survey online to report any storm-related damage. The county is working to set up a shelter in Alvarado for anyone in need, Moore said.

A large pile of wooden pallets that caught fire in Alvarado Monday night will burn for several days. Officials believe the pallets were struck by lightning Monday night, a fire official said. No injuries were reported.

In addition to the EF-2, three EF-0 tornadoes also touched down in Johnson County.

• 10:49 p.m., an EF-0 near Keene touched down for about four minutes. The length was about 1. 7 miles and 75 yards wide. The tornado damaged mostly trees and caused some minor roof damage.
• 10:58 p.m. EF-0 max winds of 85 mph minor damage to roofs and outbuildings, animal homes, and trees north of Alvarado. Likely began near Couty Road 600 and Farm-to-Market Road 917 tracking east toward Homestead. The tornado was on the ground for about eight minutes, traveling just under 5 miles and had a width of 200 yards.
• 11:06 p.m., an EF-0 with max winds developed south of Farm-to-Market Road 157 and County Road 506 north of Venus tracked mostly across an open field but was identified by tree damage and damage to a few structures along CR506. Structural damage was primarily to roofs and awnings to residences and outbuildings. The tornado tracked northeast and dissipated southeast of the intersection of Delta and County Road 511 west of the Johnson-Ellis county line. The tornado was on the ground for four minutes, traveling just under 3 miles with a width of about 50 yards.

EF-1 HITS BLUE RIDGE IN COLLIN COUNTY

The National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday afternoon an EF-1 tornado touched down in Blue Ridge at about 9:32 p.m. and was on the ground for about four minutes, traveling about one-quarter of a mile with winds estimated at 100 mph. The width of the damage path was about 200 yards.

The NWS said the tornado began on the west side of Blue Ridge south of of Farm-to-Market Road 545 and east of S. Church Street where two small workshops or farm outbuildings were damaged. The tornado moved northeast, north of FM 545, damaging roofs, a barn and collapsing a wall on a metal outbuilding. The tornado damaged multiple homes and structures, including a home near FM 545 and Morrow Street that suffered substantial damage to the roof and a roof deck. The tornado damaged a car wash near Main and FM 545 and damaged several trees before lifting.

The tornado had a length of just over 1/4 of a mile and a width of 188 yards. It was on the ground from 9:32 p.m. until 9:36 p.m.

At this time, the county has no reports of storm-related injuries or casualties.

Collin County Emergency Management and Public Works departments said Tuesday afternoon one home was destroyed and several others were damaged near Blue Ridge.

Additionally, eight county roads are currently closed due to flooding or fallen trees. Road crews are working today to re-open the following county roads: 331, 400, 504, 557, 580, 590, 602 and County Road 1220 and the intersection of County Road 472.

Among those who rode out the storm in safety were a handful of Blue Ridge volunteer firefighters who gathered inside of the department’s administration building in anticipation of responding after the worst of it had passed.

At about 10 p.m. Monday the storm ripped a portion of the fire department administration’s roof off the building and collapsed a large portion of the drop ceiling down onto the firefighters.

“It was scary,” said Capt. Bonnie Bowers of the Blue Ridge Fire Department. “But we were most concerned about the community.”

First Baptist Church Blue Ridge established a benevolence fund to assist families with immediate needs. Financial donations can be made through the church’s website, FirstBlueRidge.org, or text TORNADORELIEF to 888-411-3304, or mail donations to FBC Blue Ridge, 316 Highway 78 N, Blue Ridge, Texas 75424.

The church is not accepting donations of physical goods, such as clothes or blankets.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management is asking residents to report damages from the April 4 storms, for both insured and uninsured property. Residents can report damages online here.

EF-0 CONFIRMED NEAR MIDLOTHIAN

Survey teams with the National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday damage consistent with a small EF-0 tornado near Midlothian.

The NWS said the narrow tornado touched down at about 11:13 and traveled 1.4 miles before dissipating two minutes later. Max winds were 85 mph.

The small tornado occurred along E. Wyatt Road near Ward Road. NWS survey teams spotted roof damage to homes and tree damage. The tornado was originally rated an EF-1 but was re-rated an EF-0 on Thursday.

Damage reports in the area included nine damaged structures including a home, sheds and carports. A tractor-trailer was flipped on its side at a Love’s gas station along U.S. Highway 67.

VAN ZANDT COUNTY

In Van Zandt County, the hardest-hit areas include the southern portion of the county.

According to Van Zandt Emergency Management, most of the damage included trees and there was one structural collapse reported.

JD Schulgen has lived along Van Zandt County Road 2410 by Canton for about 13 years. He recalls hearing “howling wind” just after midnight Tuesday.

“I have never had winds that intense out here. There were several storms,” Schulgen said. “We went through the tornado in 2017, but nothing like this so far this far south.”

Schulgen said both his and his mother-in-law’s properties have some roof damage.

WESTLAKE FIREFIGHTER INJURED

A firefighter in Westlake was injured Monday night while battling a house fire.

The fire, officials said, started after a lightning strike at a home on the 1800 block of Broken Bend Drive.

The homeowner was able to evacuate without injury.

The injured firefighter was hospitalized for treatment of an unspecified minor injury.

REMEMBER ME IN BURLESON

Remember Me, a rehoming organization for retired thoroughbred horses, says they lost a barn (no horses were inside), and that several fences were damaged from Monday’s storm but that all of the animals appear to be OK.

RAINFALL TOTALS

Much needed widespread rain resulted in some flooding in North Texas.

Rainfall totals were over three inches in parts of Collin and Denton counties. Totals in parts of Frisco picked up over four inches.

The rain was heavy and came in a short amount of time leading to some localized flooding issues.

Parts of Dallas and Tarrant Counties saw about one to one and a half inches of rain.

The drought has been intensifying in North Texas this spring. The DFW area is in extreme drought. Updated data from the drought monitor will be released on Thursday.

WATER RESCUES, FLOODED ROADS

There were multiple, late-night water rescues Monday from flash flooding in McKinney, according to representatives of the fire department. They shared some of the photos in the video below.

In Lewisville, while no swift-water rescues were reported the police and fire departments did respond to several reports of vehicles stalled in floodwaters. Surface flooding along Interstate 35E access roads was a problem late into the night.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Behind the storms, the air will be drier and temperatures will soar into the upper 80s on Tuesday.

A cold front will swing through the area Tuesday night. It will cool us back down into the 60s and 70s for the rest of the week.

Weather Connection

spring Mar 31, 2022

Wildflower Forecast: What Dry Conditions Mean for North Texas Bluebonnets This Spring

forecast Apr 29

NBC 5 Forecast: The First Week of May: From Seasonable to Above Normal Temperatures

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

No deaths were reported from the storms late Tuesday and early Wednesday, officials said.

A tornado that struck Springdale and the adjoining town of Johnson, about 145 miles (235 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, about 4 a.m. injured seven people, two critically, said Washington County, Arkansas, Emergency Management Director John Luther. He had no additional information about them.

The National Weather Service said that tornado would be rated “at least EF-2,” which would mean wind speeds reached 111-135 mph (178-217 kph).

Severe Storms

texas Mar 29, 2022

Watch: Surveillance Camera Video Shows Moment Tornado Rips Through Texas School

tornadoes Mar 23, 2022

EXPLAINER: Why South Gets More Killer Tornadoes at Night

“Search and rescue teams have been deployed, as there are significant damages and injuries,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

In northwest Missouri, an EF-1 tornado with wind speeds around 90 mph (145 kph) struck St. Joseph on Tuesday night, according the weather service. That tornado damaged two homes, but no injuries were reported there.

Another EF-1 tornado with wind speeds around 100 mph (160 kph) touched down briefly before dawn Wednesday in a rural subdivision 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Dallas, damaging two roofs, the weather service reported.

The storms come a week after a tornado in a New Orleans-area neighborhood carved a path of destruction during the overnight hours and killed a man.

Damage was extensive in Springdale, including to an elementary school gymnasium and a warehouse, KFSM-TV reported. The Springdale School District, which is the largest in Arkansas, canceled all classes Wednesday.

“We have some commercial buildings and residences and everything in between … with severe storm damage,” Luther said.

About 80,000 power outages were reported in Texas and Louisiana, about 56,000 in Louisiana, where storms have passed.

Tornado warnings were in effect Wednesday afternoon in southeastern Arkansas, western Mississippi, northeastern Louisiana and a tornado watch remained in effect in parts of eastern Arkansas.

A tornado watch was issued for most of Arkansas, northern Louisiana, southern Missouri, southeastern Oklahoma, and northeast Texas through early Wednesday afternoon.

Strong winds in Louisiana overturned semitrailers, peeled the roof off a mobile home, sent a tree crashing into a home and knocked down power lines, according to weather service forecasters, who didn’t immediately confirm any tornadoes in the state.

Nearly 90,000 homes and businesses were without power from Texas to Mississippi, where downed trees blocked a street in the capital city of Jackson.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said all of Mississippi and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee were at the greatest risk for severe weather Wednesday. More than 8 million people live in that area, which includes the cities of Memphis, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Montgomery, Alabama.

Schools in Memphis and dozens in Mississippi closed early or conducted classes online as a precaution against having children in crowded buildings or on buses.

“Today’s weather may not impact some folks while others may experience one of the worst days of their life,” Stephen McCraney, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said in a briefing.

Officials in various Mississippi counties were opening safe locations for people worried about staying in their home during the storm. In Louisiana, officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency advised people living in temporary housing such as trailers after Hurricane Ida to be on the alert and know where to go in case they need to evacuate.

Our tornado total for the year so far is up to 17. The 10 year average for the whole year is 23 in North Texas. That means the tornado season is off to a fast start. But there is reason to think that this fast pace will not continue.

The rainfall forecast from the Climate Prediction Center for April through June calls for a good chance of below-normal rainfall across Texas. Below normal rainfall means fewer thunderstorms, which in turn could mean fewer severe weather events.

Unfortunately, fewer thunderstorms also mean an increase in the drought that is taking hold across the state.

Dry soil conditions heading into summer could also signal a hot summer ahead.

An EF-0 with winds of 85 mph was confirmed in Benbrook. That is where the strong winds lifted the roof off a boat dock at Benbrook Lake.

The second additional tornado was confirmed as an EF-0 with winds of 85 mph in Euless.

That brings the total number of confirmed tornadoes in North Texas that day to 12. Details on the other 10 tornadoes can be found here.

There were four additional tornadoes confirmed in central Texas as well, bringing the total between the two areas to 16.

tornado Mar 28, 2022

Classes to Resume for Jacksboro ISD as Tornado Recovery Continues

Fort Worth Mar 26, 2022

16-Year-Old Who Drove Away From Tornado Gifted Brand New Truck

tornadoes Mar 22, 2022

EF-3, EF-2 Tornadoes Confirmed in Jacksboro, Grayson Co.; 10 Total in North Texas

Two of the district’s three schools – Jacksboro Elementary and Jacksboro High School – were badly damaged after school on March 21, with classes canceled the rest of the week.

“I’m looking forward to see[ing] lots of my friends,” said 8-year-old Falyn Deaver.

In a statement, Jacksboro ISD Superintendent Brad Burnett said the district’s high school main campus will be ready to open this week for students and staff, though the elementary school will remain closed with classes moved to various facilities around the city. It’s not yet clear when repairs will be completed there.

“I am pleased to announce that Monday, March 28, will be a staff workday for all JISD employees, and classes will resume for all JISD campuses on Tuesday, March 29,” Burnett said. “Jacksboro Elementary will release an updated schedule with the temporary location of each grade level no later than Monday, March 28 at noon.”

Burnett said tornado recovery efforts are progressing according to plan and debris removal, demolition of unstable structures and temporary roof replacement are underway.

“Structural engineers have evaluated all the facilities impacted by the storm,” Burnett said. “Engineers will certify the structural integrity of all damaged buildings before students or staff are allowed to enter the facilities.”

Elementary school classes will resume Tuesday and will be moved temporarily to other facilities in the city, including the First Baptist Church, Jacksboro Parish, Fort Richardson Masonic Lodge, and Jacksboro Middle School.

The school’s principal, Michael Qualls, was finalizing specific plans on which grades will go to each facility, Burnett said.

Recovery efforts have continued across the city, with hundreds of power crews tasked with replacing more than 80 utility poles and thousands of feet of downed lines.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

“That was my first time in a tornado, and hopefully that’s my last time,” said 16-year-old Riley Leon.

Surrounded by his family at the Bruce Lowrie Chevy dealership in Fort Worth, Leon said he still can’t believe he’s alive.

“I am very grateful,” said Leon. “This doesn’t happen to a lot of people, and it happened to me.”

The teen was driving home from a job interview at Whataburger. He was heading down Highway 290 when a twister pushed his pickup on its side and flipped it upright.

“I was mostly worried about my truck honestly,” Leon said. “I didn’t care about myself at that point. It left me speechless seeing how my truck was.”

Even the force of a tornado can’t rip him from his prized pickup. He already has plans to fix it.

“It’s my truck,” said Leon. “I cannot let it go. It has a lot of sentimental value to me.”

Leon was also presented a check for $15,000 dollars to help him and his family.

And there’s more good news: He landed the job at Whataburger and starts Monday.

Hundreds of power crews were tasked with replacing more than 80 utility poles, and thousands of feet of downed lines, in the days since an EF-3 tornado touched down on Monday.

The only properties where electricity has not been restored are ones where the building is too badly damaged to safely electrify, according to an Oncor spokesperson.

“Thankfully [the crews] know this is what we need to do to respond to those tornado-damaged [areas] and this is what we are going to continue to do until power is fully restored,” said Kerri Dunn, of Oncor, about the logistics of restoring power in an area with so much infrastructure damage.

Restoring power has been one of several hoops the community, about an hour northwest of Fort Worth, has been trying to jump through.

Another outstanding question does not yet have an answer – when can students in the Jacksboro ISD return to class.

Two of the district’s three schools – Jacksboro Elementary and Jacksboro High School – were badly damaged when the tornado came through.

As a result of the damage done to the buildings and to the town, classes were canceled for all this week.

As of Wednesday afternoon, district officials were just beginning the process to determine when it can safely bring students back. Part of that question involves determining where classes would be held for the elementary and high school students who likely will not return to their buildings for the remainder of this school year.

Continuing Coverage: Jacksboro Tornado

jacksboro Mar 21, 2022

No Major Injuries After Apparent Tornado Leaves Behind 2-Mile Debris Field in Jacksboro

tornado Mar 22, 2022

Cleanup Underway After Deadly Tornado Outbreak

jacksboro Mar 23, 2022

Clean-Up Continues, Electric Crews Work to Restore Power in Jacksboro

Strong straight-line winds literally peeled back the roof off the 4th and 5th-grade wing of Grace Hardeman Elementary School.

Rainwater poured in, causing even more damage.

It happened after school hours around 6 p.m. on Monday, so no injuries were reported.

“This is not anything that any of us would’ve wanted to deal with but we are. It could’ve been much worse and we’re thankful that it wasn’t,” said spokesman Mark Thomas with Birdville ISD.

Hardeman students were out of class on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, they returned to class at a temporary campus at the old Richland Elementary School in Richland Hills, about five miles away from Watauga.

“It was so emotional when we went back to Hardeman seeing what happened to our school. For our students and our families, we just want them to know that all of us are here for them,” said Wendy Teague, a P.E. teacher for Hardeman.

The aging Richland campus was closed in May as part of a bond project that combined the students with another campus in a brand new school nearby. The old building was being held by the district for potential future use, making it an ideal location for this situation, district officials said.

“Birdville ISD administration has been hands-down the most wonderful district to work for,” said Teague. “It’s a blessing to work in such a district that they take care of their students, their teachers, and the parents.”

Students from area high schools decorated the temporary campus with inspirational posters and other signs to welcome Hardeman students. Others joined in and helped clear the vacant building of storage and prepare it for classes.

Buses picked up students from Hardeman and transported them to Richland on Thursday. High school cheerleaders greeted the students while teachers and staff welcomed them in with open arms.

“I’m honestly grateful that they have somewhere to go to school. Because if we didn’t have this campus who knows what they would be doing,” said Rebecca Edge, who has two children attending Hardeman Elementary. “I was honestly shocked at how quickly they put it together. And all the things the teachers are doing to make it welcoming and comfortable for the kids.”

Posters around campus read “Camp Hardeman” in order to help students feel a little more normalcy during this transition.

“So our students feel like they are away on an adventure, instead of some thing that has been dramatic for them,” said Teague. “When you walk down the halls, it doesn’t seem like three days ago or four days ago the school wasn’t even a school. It now feels like oh this is our home again.”

Birdville ISD officials said Hardeman might be able to reopen on April 4 but that is subject to change depending on repairs. The building’s electrical system needs to be checked to make sure there is no additional damage.

Check the district’s social media pages for updates.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The driver of a red pickup truck seen in a widely-circulated video flipping over on Highway 290 during a tornado in Elgin says the twister hit “out of nowhere” and adds he’s “blessed to live another day.”

“It just happened fast,” said 16-year-old Riley Leon.

Leon said he was on his way home from Whataburger where he had gone for a job interview when he was caught by the tornado.

“I actually called my friend. I was like, ‘I got the job!'” Leon said. “Everything was going good.”

Then, he suddenly found himself in the middle of a tornado.

“I honestly didn’t know what to do, to grab onto the steering wheel or to start praying,” the 11th grader said.

The tornado pushed his Silverado on its side, then bounced it back upright, before he appeared to simply drive on.

“On the video, it looks like I drove off but in reality I didn’t,” he said. “I landed in the center of the road and I was just driving to get off the road.”

He stopped. Police checked on him.

Leon called his mother.

“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” his mother Sylvia Leon said in Spanish. “Thank God he’s OK. The rest doesn’t matter.”

Riley said his truck is banged up and not really drivable.

“It still turns on but it doesn’t drive very good,” he said.

Riley said he’s just grateful to be alive.

“I’m actually blessed to live another day,” he said.

Abbott received a briefing and held a press conference with on Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. in Sherman.

The Governor then traveled to Elgin for a second briefing and press conference at 1:30 p.m.

The press conferences come after severe thunderstorms spread damage across Texas earlier this week.

Parts of central and east Texas, especially the Austin and College Station areas, also saw severe storms reported as tornadoes, the National Weather Service said.

“It sounded like howling — like it was really loud — glass clashing, trees in the window,” said Bryston Roberts who sheltered in her grandparents’ closet.

When she and her family stepped outside, they found her stepmother’s car flipped over in the front yard and debris all over the place.

“I cried a lot, it’s just crazy,” said Roberts.

Across the street at Jack Maddox’s house, the roof is gone and the outer walls of the home in the back are no longer there.

“Just utter devastation, our first thoughts were shock,” said Maddox as he surveyed his home. “You’re in shock and you’ve got an adrenaline rush and it really hasn’t hit you right away you just go ‘Oh My Lord, wow.’”

Maddox, who is the pastor of First Baptist Church in town, said he and his wife were not home at the time. They heard the warnings and put their cars under the shelter of a car wash but later got the call about their home.

He walked up to find most of his home, and others on Bryan Street destroyed.

“You know, you have the proverbial coffee pot sitting in the same place, the sugar bowls that didn’t move, decorative books that haven’t moved, but a wall is gone,” described Maddox.

Across the street from him, his neighbor Russ Ray also lost his roof. He says his wife wasn’t home at the time, but when he heard the warnings he sheltered in the bathroom with the dog.

“We were just hunkered down like this, as soon as I grabbed the dog, that thing hit, and tried to stay as low as I could, pretty scary,” recalled Ray, who moved in less than a year ago.

About 80 homes were damaged in the area, but many say it’s a miracle no one was seriously injured.

“As a pastor, I’m on the other side of this, it’s a humbling thing,” expressed Maddox as he reflected on how he never envisioned this happening.

Maddox and many others are relying on faith in the face of disaster.

“God wastes nothing, and he uses all things for his glory and that’s kind of hard to wrap your brain around right now, but doesn’t make it any less true,” said the pastor. “Jesus died for the people, not for homes, not for brick for people and there’s a lot of hurting people in our town right now, but the common thing is, we’re going to be okay”

The American Red Cross sent volunteers to the area to help storm victims.

Click here to learn how to support disaster relief efforts in North Texas and make a donation to the American Red Cross

Video shows the red truck crossing the road then being blown over onto its side, spun around and then blown back right side up.

Severe thunderstorms with reports of possible tornadoes spread damage across parts of North Texas on Monday, injuring at least four people, officials said.

An unconfirmed tornado left behind significant damage in the city of Jacksboro, including at Jacksboro High School and Jacksboro Elementary School.

severe weather Mar 22, 2022

Tornado Rips Through New Orleans and Its Suburbs, Killing 1

texas Mar 22, 2022

Tornado Roars Through Parking Lot of Texas Walmart

No one was seriously injured. Officials in Jacksboro said Monday night that a debris field from the storm is at least two miles wide.

Parts of central and east Texas, especially the Austin and College Station areas, also saw severe storms reported as tornadoes, the National Weather Service said. Photographs posted on social media showed damage to buildings in the Austin suburbs Round Rock and Elgin. No injuries were immediately reported.

In another video captured amid the storms, a tornado can be seen rolling through a Walmart parking lot in Round Rock.

A storm system had been predicted to bring strong tornadoes and large hail to parts of Texas on Monday, then move toward the Deep South, where forecasters warned a severe weather outbreak was possible Tuesday.

Damage from the afternoon and evening storms was scattered across several counties where as many as five tornadoes were believed to have touched down Monday.

According to the Grayson County Office of Emergency Management, a 73-year-old woman was killed when a tornado slammed into her neighborhood, destroying her Sherwood Shores home Monday afternoon.

The woman has not yet been identified.

The county’s emergency management office said there were 10 others injured in Greyson County and that nearly two dozen homes had suffered damage.

JACKSBORO TORNADO

In Jacksboro, about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, photographs posted on social media showed a storm ripped the wall and roof from parts of Jacksboro High School, including its gym. Both the Jacksboro Elementary School and the Jacksboro High School both had major damage, but no one was injured at either campus.

Officials in Jacksboro said Monday night that a debris field from the storm is at least two miles wide.

The storm also struck the city’s animal shelter, but the amount of damage wasn’t immediately clear.

Four people had to be rescued from a damaged home but were not seriously hurt.

BOWIE TORNADO

Thirty miles northeast of Jacksboro, near Bowie, damage also was reportedly widespread with reports of some people trapped in collapsed structures. City manager Bert Cunningham said the worst damage was east of the town. Four people suffered minor injuries, said Emergency Manager Kelly McNabb.

The storm system had been predicted to bring strong tornadoes and large hail to parts of Texas on Monday, then move toward the Deep South, where forecasters warned a severe weather outbreak was possible Tuesday.

The rain brought relief to some areas of Texas hit by wildfires, but windy weather was expected to follow which may dry out any wet areas and again put the area at risk of wildfires.

CENTRAL TEXAS TORNADOES

Parts of Central and East Texas, especially the Austin and College Station areas, also saw severe storms reported as tornadoes, the National Weather Service said. Photographs posted on social media showed damage to buildings in the Austin suburbs Round Rock and Elgin. No injuries were immediately reported.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference Monday night in suburban Austin’s Williamson County that the “devastating” storms caused significant damage but the state would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with those affected, and he was thankful that there no reports of fatalities.

“We know there are many people whose lives have been completely disrupted and people who’ve lost their homes,” Abbott said. “At the very same time… it may be a miracle also, because even though there’s been some devastating physical damage, to my knowledge, as of right now, there is no report of loss of life, which is just stunning.”

Abbott credited local residents with taking shelter early, and local media who helped report approaching storms.

Continuing Coverage: Tornadoes Caught on Camera

texas Mar 22, 2022

Tornado Roars Through Parking Lot of Texas Walmart

STORMS CONTINUE TO U.S. SOUTHEAST

On Tuesday, areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama could see “a regional severe weather outbreak,” the Storm Prediction Center said. That area, including the cities of Baton Rouge and Jackson, Mississippi, could see strong tornadoes Tuesday, forecasters said.

Federal and state authorities in Louisiana reminded thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan because the structures might not withstand the expected weather.

More than 8,000 households are living in such temporary quarters, Bob Howard, spokesman for a joint information center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Monday.

In a joint statement, the agencies said floods may cause the most damage.

“Repeated bouts of heavy rainfall can occur over the same areas, increasing the risk for flooding,” the statement said. “Move to higher ground if you hear of flood warnings.”

Nearly 1,800 households in trailers provided directly by FEMA are unable to return yet to homes damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020, according to a news release last week. Another 1,600 trailers were deployed for Hurricane Ida’s displaced households, Howard said, and Louisiana has set out more than 4,400 RV trailers for Ida’s victims under a test program paid for by FEMA.

Anyone living in the state or FEMA temporary housing needs to keep cellphones on and fully charged, with the volume high and severe weather alerts enabled, the agencies said.

“The danger is expected to be highest at night,” they added.

And, the release noted, the mobile homes and RV trailers are government property that cannot be moved.

Officials reported a damaged high school in Jacksboro and collapsed structures in nearby Bowie from confirmed tornadoes. The strength of the tornadoes is not yet known. It’s also not immediately clear if anyone was injured.

Tornado warnings were issued Monday night for portions of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties. Tarrant was canceled at 6:29 p.m.; Dallas was canceled at 6:39 p.m. and warnings in Denton and Collin counties were canceled at 6:52 p.m.

• A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for a large area west of the Metroplex until 9 p.m.
• A Tornado Watch has been issued for much of North Texas until 10 p.m.
• Some school districts are canceling after-school activities due to the weather. See the updated list here.

NBC 5 Chief Meteorologist Rick Mitchell said he expects the storm to move out of the area in the early evening and to be totally gone by 11 p.m. Rain totals are likely to be in the 1-2 inch range.

“If severe weather approaches you, seek shelter on the lowest level of the structure you are in,” Mitchell said. “Put as many walls in between you and the outside as possible. An interior room such as a bathroom or closet is good. Be prepared, not scared.”

NBC 5 Meteorologist Grant Johnston said earlier Monday the severe weather risk was significant as much of the DFW area was under an ENHANCED RISK (level 3 out of 5) for severe storms. Farther south and southeast, a MODERATE RISK (level 4 out of 5) includes areas around Waco, Austin, College Station, and Palestine.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS POSSIBLE IN CENTRAL TEXAS

Parts of central and east Texas, especially the Austin and College Station areas, could see hurricane-force winds of 75 mph (120 kph) or greater, along with baseball-sized hail and several tornadoes on Monday, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said.

The rain was expected to bring relief to some areas of Texas hit by wildfires, but windy weather was expected to follow.

On Tuesday, areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama could see “a regional severe weather outbreak,” the Storm Prediction Center said. That area, including the cities of Baton Rouge and Jackson, Mississippi, could see strong tornadoes Tuesday, forecasters said.

Federal and state authorities in Louisiana reminded thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan because the structures might not withstand the expected weather.

More than 8,000 households are living in such temporary quarters, Bob Howard, spokesman for a joint information center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Monday.

In a joint statement, the agencies said floods may cause the most damage.

“Repeated bouts of heavy rainfall can occur over the same areas, increasing the risk for flooding,” the statement said. “Move to higher ground if you hear of flood warnings.”

Nearly 1,800 households in trailers provided directly by FEMA are unable to return yet to homes damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020, according to a news release last week. Another 1,600 trailers were deployed for Hurricane Ida’s displaced households, Howard said, and Louisiana has set out more than 4,400 RV trailers for Ida’s victims under a test program paid for by FEMA.

Anyone living in state or FEMA temporary housing needs to keep cellphones on and fully charged, with the volume high and severe weather alerts enabled, the agencies said.

“The danger is expected to be highest at night,” they added.

And, the release noted, the mobile homes and RV trailers are government property that cannot be moved.

Weather Connection

forecast Apr 29

NBC 5 Forecast: The First Week of May: From Seasonable to Above Normal Temperatures

hail Mar 14, 2022

Your Storm and Large Hail Pictures From March 14, 2022

Emergency management officials in Madison County said four were injured and six people were killed Saturday when one tornado touched down in the area southwest of Des Moines near the town of Winterset around 4:30 p.m. Among those killed were two children under the age of five and four adults.

In Lucas County, about 54 miles (87 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines, officials confirmed one death and multiple reported injuries when a separate tornado struck less than an hour later.

The state Department of Natural Resources said that person who died was in an RV at a campground at Red Haw State Park in Chariton, Iowa.

Thunderstorms that spawned tornadoes moved through much of Iowa from the afternoon until Saturday night with storms also causing damage in the Des Moines suburb of Norwalk, areas just east of Des Moines and other areas of eastern Iowa. The storms were fueled by warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials reported a number of homes were damaged or destroyed, roads were blocked by downed lines and tree branches were shredded by the strong winds. At one point, power outages affected more than 10,000 in the Des Moines area. About 800 customers remained without power Sunday evening.

The storms are the deadliest to occur in Iowa since May 2008 when one tornado destroyed nearly 300 homes and killed nine people in the northern Iowa city of Parkersburg. Another tornado a month later killed four boys at the Little Sioux Boy Scout ranch in western Iowa.

Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said there have been plenty of examples of deadly storms in March even though they are more common in April and May. Saturday’s storms were not nearly as unusual as the mid-December tornado outbreak that Iowa saw last year, he said.

“The storms that produce these tornadoes — these supercell storms — they don’t care what the calendar says,” Gensini said. “It doesn’t have to say June. It doesn’t have to say May. They form whenever the ingredients are present. And they were certainly present yesterday.”

Scientists have said that extreme weather events and warmer temperatures are more likely to occur with human-caused climate change. However, scientifically attributing a storm system to global warming requires specific analysis and computer simulations that take time, haven’t been done and sometimes show no clear connection.

Gensini said Saturday’s storms likely caused more than $1 billion in damages over their entire track when the severe damage in Iowa is combined with wind damage as far away as Illinois.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Madison County, which allows state resources to be used to assist with response and recovery efforts. Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said 52 homes were damaged or destroyed across nearly 14 miles.

The White House said President Joe Biden was briefed Sunday on the storm devastation in Iowa. Biden reached out Reynolds and directed the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to remain in close contact with state and local officials as they assessed damage and determined what federal assistance was needed, the White House said in a statement.

After touring the storm damage near Winterset, Reynolds described “unimaginable destruction.”

Reynolds teared up as she described the hundreds of people who streamed into the area to volunteer their help to clear debris that blocked roads and littered the hardest hit areas. Homeowners and volunteers were picking up wood debris and beginning to clear it away Sunday in the rolling hills south of Winterset as chainsaws whirred away in the background.

“It’s just unbelievable. I tried to walk through and thank them and over and over (and) the response was, we’re Iowans and that’s what we do,” she said.

The foundation was all that was left of several homes. The tornado carved a path of destruction along a ridge while several hundred feet away other homes were undamaged.

Ayala said emergency responders navigated narrow roads blocked by downed trees and debris Saturday night to help after the storm.

“With trees and debris and everything around, just to go out there and start the search and rescue and get the people affected out of there, I cannot express the heroism of the first responders who were out there last night,” Ayala said.

Officials identified the six people who were killed in Madison County as Melissa Bazley, 63; Rodney Clark, 64; Cecilia Lloyd, 72; Michael Bolger, 37; Kinlee Bolger, 5; and Owen Bolger, 2. The victims came from three different households.

Lucas County officials didn’t immediately identify the person who died there Sunday afternoon.

Six people hurt in Madison County, which is known for the “Bridges of Madison County” book and movie, were being treated for injuries Sunday, but their conditions weren’t immediately available.

The National Weather Service in Des Moines said Sunday that the tornado that killed one person in Lucas County remained on the ground for more than 16 miles (25.75 kilometers) and rated an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale with peak winds of 138 mph. The damage assessment for the Winterset tornado isn’t likely to be completed until Monday, but the Weather Service tweeted Saturday that initial photos of the damage there suggested that tornado was also at least an EF-3 tornado.

Elsewhere, the National Weather Service said the storms generated an EF-1 tornado in southeastern Wisconsin near Stoughton that included winds up to 80 mph. The storm flattened trees, snapped power poles and blew out windows in homes. No injuries were reported.

___

The spelling of Kinlee Bolger’s first name has been corrected.

___

Associated Press reporter Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report. Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.

Sweet Shop USA in Mount Pleasant is the largest handmade chocolate manufacturer in the United States. The family-owned business was founded 50 years in Fort Worth but moved just outside of the Metroplex when a tornado damaged their old facility many years ago.

Every year, the factory begins Valentine’s Day production around Christmas in order to make enough chocolates for sweethearts across the country.

“It’s one of our favorite times of the year. I mean, there’s nothing any more sweet than being able to share the love for chocolate,” said Angela Moss, VP of sales for Sweet Shop USA. “Our chocolate, our truffles are all hand-decorated and hand-dipped so it requires a lot of labor but that’s why they’re so special and they’re so beautiful.”

They work exclusively with UPS, which transports more than a quarter-million boxes of candy overall for Valentine’s Day.

“For those four to six weeks, we’re producing 100,000 pounds of chocolate. So, it’s insane. It’s all hands on deck but we have the best time and we’re grateful for our shipping partners like UPS to help get the job done,” said Moss.

Sweet Shop USA actually experienced the effects of supply chain issues while waiting for stalled cargo ships in California to unload the heart-shaped boxes needed for Valentine’s Day.

“They actually made it four weeks ago so it all worked out. But there are things like that people may not always think about — all those little details to make the holiday happen so we were grateful for that,” said Moss.

Winter storms across the country were another factor but Sweet Shop USA was able to box up their handmade creations just in time for deliveries to store shelves and doorsteps.

“We love being centrally located in the nation, that helps us with our shipping,” said Moss.

According to UPS, Valentine’s Day occurring on a Monday will not have any impact on deliveries. The delivery company begins working with their customers well in advance of Valentine’s Day to ensure shipments are received on time.

According to the National Retail Federation, candy is the number one most popular gift for Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day spending is expected to reach $23.9 billion this year, up from $21.8 billion in 2021 and the second-highest year on record.

Sweet Shop USA’s next big task is preparing for Easter just around the corner.

“We’ve already like launched are working on our catalogs for Christmas 2022 I mean, so we’re way ahead of the curve looking and even looking at next year’s Valentine’s Day.

Orders for Easter are open. Click here to order online or call 903-575-5505 to order over the phone. They also have a retail store at their Mount Pleasant factory location.

Most of the damage from the storms that came through Saturday night was in Harris, Montgomery and Liberty counties, according to National Weather Service officials.

An EF-1, which has estimated wind speeds of 73 miles per hour to 112 miles per hour, was confirmed to have touched down in Humble, while an EF-0 was confirmed in Montgomery, said National Weather Service lead forecaster Brian Kyle. An EF-0 has estimated winds of 40 miles per hour to 72 miles per hour.

He said officials were still surveying damage in a couple of other areas to determine if there were other tornadoes as well.

In Humble, located just north of Houston, the metal roof from a business crashed into a road, hitting a couple of homes, KPRC-TV reported.

Sunday morning started with a hard freeze with temperatures dropping into the teens in most areas. Wind chill values Sunday morning fell to the single digits in some spots. You’ll want to dress in layers if you go outdoors today. With strong north winds, it’ll be cold all day.

This will be the coldest air of the winter so far in North Texas. No significant precipitation occurred with the cold front. But there were a few spotty light sleet showers and even a few snow flurries overnight and into Sunday morning, mainly north and east of Dallas. Accumulating snow has been falling though in parts of Arkansas and northern Louisiana.

With skies clearing out, we will enjoy sunshine Sunday afternoon. But those same clear skies mean another hard freeze will occur tonight into Monday morning with temperatures dropping into the low 20s in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and into the teens in surrounding areas.

Don’t forget to protect your pipes, plants, and pets. This cold snap will be short-lived and not a repeat of the prolonged cold experienced last February.

winter weather Dec 31, 2021

Fort Worth Advises Residents to Prepare Pipes for Freezing Temperatures

winter Dec 31, 2021

North Texas Braces for First Hard Freeze Since February's Devastating Winter Storm

After a couple of cold days, it will rebound to the 60s on Tuesday. But another cold front will arrive around mid-day on Wednesday, and temperatures will fall quickly once again and remain chilly for the rest of the week. 

Lone Star NYE

Lone Star NYE Dec 9, 2021

‘Lone Star NYE: Countdown to 2022' Rings in the New Year

Lone Star NYE Dec 22, 2021

Lone Star NYE Gets Bigger, Brighter With Added Drone Show

Weather Links

• Latest Weather Forecast

Just a few hours before, while at work, he saw the news about an impending tornado and thought about the many warnings that had come before but never amounted to anything. So he went home to his neighborhood in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and went to sleep in the house he shares with five other family members, all refugees from Thailand.

Later, Oo, 22, woke up in the middle of the night to the tornado alarms ringing, but still he didn’t worry and lay back down. Before he could fall asleep again, though, he heard “a train sound, but I didn’t hear any train horn. So I’m like, ‘That’s a dang tornado,'” he recalled to NBCLX.

He immediately ran to the living room of his house and helped his family huddle up in a room without any windows. He estimated it took about five seconds for the twister to pass.

“I wasn’t scared. It was more, ‘Is my family going to be OK?’ Just looking over them, making sure nothing’s going to fall,” he said. “It snapped everything, broke everything.”

After checking that his family was uninjured and the debris in the house couldn’t cause further trauma, he heard a sound from outside — a female neighbor crying out, “Bob,” the name of another neighbor.

“I put on my boots, throw my hoodie on, run outside, see what’s going on. I see that house just torn apart,” Oo recalled. “The first thing I did, I ran over there. One of my other neighbors was already over there with a flashlight. He’s trying to get in, but he couldn’t get in, so we moved this big piece out the way, and then soon as I got in, my neighbor left, so I was the only one there.”

“There wasn’t no adrenaline rush, nothing like that. I heard screaming and [I didn’t] see him in there. So I’m like, I’m going get him out. I’m not going to leave him in there. … I just hopped in and got on with it.”

The house, home an 80-year-old man who’d lived in the neighborhood for years, had lost its roof and a chunk of exterior walls. As Oo described it, “Everything was just crumbled up. I climbed over, I don’t know, walls, doors.”

Then he found Bob in the hallway with blood on his face, hands and feet. Bob didn’t know where his shoes were, so after Oo tried unsuccessfully to give his neighbor his own, he ran back home to grab another pair. As he was putting them on Bob’s feet, he started to smell gas in the home.

“I was not thinking, I just reacted,” he said. “I only realized what I was doing when I was in that house with him. And when I smelled that gas, I said, ‘We need to go.'”

Together they fought the wind and rain, still tempestuous even after the tornado had passed, and got Bob inside the Oo home. Next, Oo tried to chase down an ambulance to get Bob to a hospital, but they were moving too fast. Oo was able to grab someone from the fire department to check Bob out, but Bob didn’t want to go to the hospital so he stayed overnight with the Oos.

“When I first got to him at his house, he was just stunned … [didn’t] know what’s going on. Then at our place he kept saying he’s OK and all,” Oo said. “We kept checking up on him. He looked pretty lost, confused, worn out.”

The next morning, Oo and his sister when back to Bob’s house and fished out his medications and his phone so he could call his family, who came and picked him up. “He’s doing pretty good,” Oo said. “I’ve seen him a couple times and talked to him.”

Oo suspects that Bob’s house, more than 60 years old, will have to be demolished. His home fared slightly better: four or five holes in the roof, a bunch of downed trees, broken windows and a branch through one end of the structure.

Even though he didn’t think about his actions much that Friday night, Oo’s happy with their outcome, he said. “I’m just glad we all made out, honestly. We got hit, but it’s worse out there.”

To pass the time Friday afternoon, the Major League Baseball umpire was chatting on the phone with dad, just catching up on things back in his hometown.

His hometown of Mayfield, Kentucky.

Suddenly, as his father spoke, Gibson heard a tornado warning siren go off in the background. It was a familiar sound from his childhood days — as a kid, he once saw a small twister skip over his yard.

“It’s probably nothing, right?” father and son figured.

Three hours later, Gibson got an urgent message from his sister: Tornado’s hitting, Dad’s taking cover in the bathroom.

Fortunately for Gibson, no one in his immediate family was hurt in the storms that devastated the city of about 10,000 in the southwest corner of the state and surrounding area.

By Saturday, after a flight from Seattle to Atlanta to Nashville and a two-hour drive, Gibson was back in the town where he spent most of his life.

“It’s indescribable,” he told The Associated Press on Monday from Mayfield. “You think of the movie ‘Twister’ and that’s nothing compared to what we have here.”

“All the people injured, displaced, maybe dead,” he said. “There are no words.”

At least eight people working at a Mayfield candle factory were killed, and not every local resident has been accounted for yet. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that at least 74 had died statewide.

Figuring out where things were in Mayfield is nearly impossible, the 40-year-old Gibson said.

“I’m coming down roads that I’ve driven thousands of times and there’s nothing there,” he said. “You don’t even know where you are.

“Places that you landmarked as a kid, they’re gone. There are no road signs. I don’t even know where 6th Street and 7th Street and 8th Street are anymore,” he said.

More Mayfield, Kentucky Coverage

Kentucky Dec 14, 2021

Search Continues for Missing as Tornado-Slammed Kentucky Faces Long Recovery

Kentucky Dec 13, 2021

Inmates Employed at Candle Factory ‘Were Working Their Tails Off' to Rescue Tornado Victims

At one point, his late grandfather owned almost all of the land around Courthouse Square.

“I spent one summer painting every building there by myself, up on three levels of scaffolding. I knew every inch of downtown,” he said. “Now, it’s hard to see.”

As a boy, Gibson remembered Bruce Willis coming to town to shoot “In Country,” a 1989 movie based on a novel by Mayfield native Bobbie Ann Mason. Willis enjoyed spending time with Gibson’s father, Hoot, and some scenes were filmed on family property — Willis and his then-pregnant wife, Demi Moore, took a picture with young Tripp.

Gibson’s father and stepmother, Marietta, live about two-tenths of a mile from downtown Mayfield. They sheltered at a friend’s house nearby when the tornado hit.

The family owns 100 homes in the Mayfield area, a business his grandfather, a U.S. Navy veteran, started in 1949 to partly help returning service members. Gibson said he and his dad visited about 25 of the houses on Monday.

“There are so many stories of survival,” Gibson said.

Gibson went to Graves County High School and graduated from Murray State before becoming a professional umpire in 2006. He worked his first MLB game in 2013, joined the full-time staff in 2015 and was on the crew for this year’s National League Championship Series between Atlanta and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Many current MLB umpires have Kentucky roots, including Sam Holbrook, Greg Gibson, Larry Vanover, Jerry Layne and Paul Nauert.

Umps Care Charities, formed by MLB umpires, is setting up a fund to help those affected in the area, Gibson said. Several other organizations are aiding in the efforts, and monetary donations for the Mayfield Graves County Tornado Relief Fund are being collected by Independence Bank in Fancy Farm, Kentucky.

After Tripp Gibson landed in Nashville, he met up with fellow umpire D.J. Reyburn for the drive to Mayfield, stopping along the way at a Lowe’s to pick up supplies.

“I’m just here to help,” Gibson said. “We’ve got our hands full.”

Gibson said he planned to stay in Mayfield for a week, then return after Christmas.

“I get to go back to Washington, to my wife and two boys, I’m lucky,” he said. “The people here in Mayfield, that’s who I’m thinking about.”

The shock of what he saw will stay with him.

“I was concerned I could have an emotional-type breakdown. I don’t think I’ve been able to fully emotionally process it,” he said. “I don’t have time for it now.”

“As you can see, we work outside of Texas, we’re not all Baptist, and 42% of our volunteer force is women,” TBM spokesman Rand Jenkins said. “Our volunteers wouldn’t do this if they got paid. It’s hard work.”

On Monday, volunteers loaded pallets of wood and roof tarps to go to Kentucky.

The supplies will be transported ahead of 3 chainsaw crews comprised of about 30 volunteers who plan to leave for Kentucky this week.

“Being able to start them on the road of rebuilding their house, rebuilding their lives after all of this,” Jenkins said. “What we hope to do every time we deploy is deliver help, hope, and healing.”

The Texas Baptist Men have been going to disaster areas near and far since 1967. It’s their mission.

“So being able to come in and just impact one family, and then another family through all of this and really see those rays of hope and those next steps to take,” Jenkins said. “It’s going to be tough, but with the help of the Christian community coming around you, we can do this.”

The Texas Baptist Men will be updating their tornado relief efforts on their website.

Scientists still have a lot to learn about the connection between climate change and tornado outbreaks because any links between them are “difficult to calculate,” NBC Miami Meteorologist Ryan Phillips told NBCLX. Tornadoes formed long before human-caused climate change, but climate change appears to be influencing the conditions which allow twisters to form.

“We cannot assume or rush to connect a warming climate to individual events. But the frequency, or infrequency, of these events should make us take note,” Phillips said.

How does climate change affect tornadoes?

When, where and how often tornado outbreaks occur could be increasingly unpredictable as the planet warms. The less we’re able to anticipate tornado outbreaks, the more dangerous and deadly they could become. For example, Phillips said one of the reasons this past weekend’s tornadoes were so deadly was that they occurred at night.

“Those who need to receive the warnings are likely asleep or disconnected from the weather situation. In some instances … those receiving the warning cannot see the threat for themselves and may not feel that their life or property is at risk.”

Typically, tornadoes are not large in size and do not impact a large geographic area. But one of Friday’s tornadoes, now being called the “Quad-State Tornado,” hit four states — Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky — in four hours.

To form, tornadoes require specific conditions like warm, humid air and wind shear, a phenomenon in which winds blow in one direction near the surface of the Earth and in different directions at higher altitudes. “The latest science indicates that the combination of these factors is increasing over time, particularly in the winter months in the south central and southeastern states,” Michael Mann, climate scientist and author of “The New Climate War,” told NBCLX.

“The latest science also indicates a trend toward more intense, destructive tornadoes. The tornado that hit Mayfield, Kentucky, was at the upper end of the scale, with radar-measured winds that neared 300 mph,” he continued. “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. We’re seeing them play out in the form of these profound extreme weather disasters.”

These conditions over the weekend “were not December-like at all,” Phillips added. “If this happened in March, April or September, we might not examine the event with this lens.”

Research on climate change and tornadoes

Friday’s tornado outbreak aligns with previous research that found peak tornado activity pushing into winter, beginning nearly a week earlier over the past few decades. Another study found that previously less active seasons for tornado outbreaks, like December, will become more active as the planet warms; over the last 40 years, it found that days favorable to tornadoes are decreasing in Texas and the Plains while increasing across the Southeast and Midwest.

Scientists at Columbia University also recently predicted that for every 1 degree celsius the planet warms, we could see favorable conditions for tornadoes increase by up to 20%. That doesn’t necessarily mean tornadoes will happen more often, just that they would be possible more often.

The American Meteorological Society warned that a warming planet could increase the overall risk of tornadoes in the United States by the end of the century. The findings suggest Americans could be up to 36 times more vulnerable to severe storms because of a combination of changes in when and where tornadoes happen along with where we live. Although it’s still a low-risk region, FEMA noted the potential disaster of a tornado hitting New York City.

One tornado, being called the “Quad-State Tornado” ripped across four states in four hours: Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. More than 70 people in Kentucky are feared dead, according to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. In Illinois, at least six people were killed Friday when a portion of an Amazon building collapsed in downstate Edwardsville during a severe weather outbreak.

For Roberta Taylor of Fort Worth, the storms hit home as she has family in Kentucky.

“It was very hard on me at first, because I didn’t know how my family was doing…if they’ve lost life, how they’ve been impacted,” Taylor said. “So when I was finally able to get in touch with my sister and she kind of talked me through some of the things that were going on there…just knowing they were about 15 minutes or so, 20 minutes away from major destruction and devastation, that made me feel a whole lot better knowing some of them were without power but for the most part, everyone is okay.”

Taylor is a partner coordinator for World Vision, a Christian humanitarian aid organization. Their North Texas warehouse is located in Grand Prairie, where Taylor said at least three truckloads will ship supplies to Kentucky on Monday.

“We’re sending mud buckets, which are clean-up kits basically cleaning up after the tornado…the water and such that has gotten into their homes,” she said. “We’re sending bleach. We’re sending hand sanitizer, wipes, food, different things like that.”

World Vision also plans to send supplies from Chicago on Sunday and West Virginia on Monday as well.

Rand Jenkins, Director of Ministry Advancement for Texas Baptist Men, said they are also ready to answer the call for help.

“What we’re trying to figure out is the best place and the way for TBM volunteers to help out,” Rand said. “There’s been such a large area of disaster and so many needs coming out of this. What we’re expecting the needs are the chainsaw units, feeding, temporary roof and the shower and laundry units to go in as well.”

Texas Baptist Men has about 5,000 volunteers across the state, according to Jenkins. The organization has been dedicated to disaster relief since 1967. Jenkins said they have been in contact with their partners in the regions heavily impacted by the storms, though there is not a definitive answer on whether their volunteers will be deployed.

“We keep all of the equipment ready to go,” he said. “It’s filled up. The tires are good shape and our volunteers have already been texting, ‘Hey I’m ready. I’m free to go.’ So, there’s some eagerness to go and help. It’s hard work but when you’re going out and you’re spreading love, it makes that work a whole lot easier to do.”

On Saturday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he approved the activation of ten Texas A&M Task Force 1 personnel to deploy the Central Incident Support Team cache, which is part of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue System.

“The State of Texas stands ready to assist our friends in Kentucky as they continue their response and recovery efforts in the wake of deadly tornadoes that shook the western portion of their state overnight,” a statement from Gov. Abbott reads. “Thank you to the members of Texas A&M Task Force 1 who are making their way to Western Kentucky to help those in need. I ask all Texans to join Cecilia and me in praying for those affected by these horrific tornadoes.”

Ahead of the Christmas holiday, Taylor said World Vision also plans to send toys for children who may been impacted by the storms.

Here’s a look at some of the relief being provided and ways to donate.

The American Red Cross is making it easy to send a quick $10 donation simply by texting “REDCROSS” addressed to the number, 90999. Other donations can be made by calling 800-733-2767 or visiting redcross.org online. Other information, including suggestions on how to find someone affected by the storm, can be found here.

The Salvation Army has set up a disaster relief fund for the tornado victims. Donations can made here or by calling 800-725-2769. It is also preparing to dispatch mobile kitchens that can serve 500 to 1,500 meals per day to the survivors and first responders in the affected areas.

World Vision, a Christian humanitarian group, plans to begin shipping relief supplies to churches in Kentucky beginning Sunday. Besides food and emergency kits, the supplies will include heaters, blankets, solar lights and mini-refrigerators. Donations to help support those efforts can be made here.

Samaritan’s Purse, another humanitarian group, said it sent disaster response teams on Saturday to Mayfield, Kentucky, and Monette, Arkansas, while other teams started to head to the devastation in Tennessee and Illinois. A tractor-trailer stocked with tools and equipment departed from Texas, according to the group, with more help on the way from North Carolina when weather allows. Donations can be made here.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced the creation of a tornado relief fund for the western part of the state and also called on people to donate blood, which has been running in short supply during the pandemic.

“There are going to be a lot of deaths,” Beshear said. “There are also going to be a lot of injuries.”

The governor also said people in the affected areas can help by staying off the roads, whenever possible.