Texas storms kill at least 4, spare Austin
4 tornadoes confirmed in several counties east of Dallas on Saturday.
Severe storms, including four confirmed tornadoes, struck northeastern Texas late Saturday, killing at least four people and injuring about 50 others.
The Austin metro area was largely spared, with only isolated storms and hail before a cold front eventually brought sunshine and significantly cooler temperatures Sunday morning.
The National Weather Service confirmed that four tornadoes had swept through Van Zandt County, whose county seat of Canton is about 50 miles east of Dallas.
According to the weather service, the first twister briefly touched ground about 4:15 p.m. Saturday in northern Van Zandt
County, a second one struck about 5:10 p.m. near Canton, a third cut a path from the southern edge of the county to just west of Canton and the fourth traveled 50 miles across three counties — Henderson, Van Zandt and Rains — from 5:41 to 7:28 p.m.
The storms damaged homes, overturned cars and tore down trees on a path about 35 miles long and 15 miles wide through Van Zandt County, Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett told The Associated Press. House-tohouse searches were underway, and the weather service said its storm teams were surveying the aftermath Sunday.
As many as 49 people were taken to area hospitals, Everett said. Two people are still unaccounted for after the storms.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who toured the damage in Canton on Sunday, said about 5,100 homes and buildings were in the tornadoes’ path. He also said a disaster declaration, which would provide additional government money for recovery efforts, is likely.
“We as Texans come together to respond to challenges like this and help our neighbors,” Abbott said.
For those who want to donate items to help Canton residents, Everett said they do not have a place to put any donations. Cash gifts are best, but officials have asked people to wait until an account is set up. They will know more about how to donate in the coming days.
The deadly storms were part of a larger band of severe thunderstorms that stretched across the nation’s midsection late Saturday, arcing from Texas to the Mississippi River Valley to the Great Lakes. In addition to the four people killed in Texas, five more weather-related deaths were reported in Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi:
In Arkansas, a 10-yearold girl drowned and the body of a woman who disappeared while riding an inner tube was found in a creek. Also, a 65-year-old woman was killed by a tree that was blown into her home, officials said. An 18-month-old girl and a 4-year-old boy were missing after a vehicle was swept off a bridge, officials said.
A 72-year-old woman drowned in southwestern Missouri as her vehicle was swept away by rushing floodwaters, the state highway patrol said.
Mississippi officials reported a death near the town of Durant.
Nearly 100 evacuations and three dozen rescues took place in Missouri on Saturday, and utilities in Arkansas said tens of thousands of customers were without electricity.
Meanwhile, in Austin, the isolated overnight storms generated less than a quarter-inch of rain, with some pockets receiving about a half-inch, weather service meteorologist Larry Hopper said.
Some of the heavier rainfall in the Austin metro area was reported east of the Interstate 35 corridor with about a quarter-inch in Elroy and nearly four-tenths of an inch in eastern Bastrop County.
Elevated thunderstorms produced significant lightning and some pea-sized hail. The highest wind gusts measured about 40 mph as the front moved into the area Saturday, Hopper said. However, the storms in Central Texas were less severe than expected.
By 7 a.m. Sunday, most of the rain had cleared out of Austin and moved east.
The cold front behind the storms replaced the record-setting heat Austin experienced last week with cooler air. As the sun rose Sunday, Camp Mabry temperatures had dropped to 52 degrees, but they climbed to a mild 75 degrees in the afternoon — several degrees cooler than normal for this time of year.
Daytime temperatures Monday are expected to rise to a more seasonally appropriate high of 87 degrees. Chances for storms are not expected to reappear until Tuesday night, forecasters said.
A low pressure system from the Pacific Northwest will bring another round of showers and thunderstorms Wednesday, along with cooler than normal temperatures. The weather service said there’s a potential for these storms to be severe, but it’s too soon to tell if it will be a repeat of this weekend’s conditions.
The front likely will drop temperatures about 10 degrees Thursday.