Tornadoes wreak destruction in region
Fast-moving system wreaks havoc on the southwest side, spawning 5 twisters
Harry Hobbs, left, helps clean up the remnants of the house he rented from Kelvin Magnum, center, after a tornado hit Tuesday in the Matagorda County town of Van Vleck, about 70 miles southwest of Houston. Hobbs suffered a fractured wrist when the roof fell on him. At least five twisters were reported as the storm system blew across the region.
ROSENBERG — Kerry Dunford was getting ready for work when she got a text message from a relative warning of a tornado nearby.
Dunford, 56, grabbed cushions from her bed and ushered her visiting adult daughter into the bathroom of her Fort Bend County home. Her daughter got in the tub. The power went out. Dunford covered her with pillows and held tight. She heard the tornado as it moved through her neighborhood. The house creaked. It sounded as if air was being sucked out of the pipes. “We knew it hit,” she said.
The pair emerged to a mess: holes in the roof, broken windows, a twisted metal fence. She found a mysterious gnome, and a yellow smiley-face volleyball that no one recognized. But they were otherwise OK.
The storm system that blew across the Houston region Tuesday morning dumped only an inch or two of rain, but it caused havoc as at least five tornadoes touched down and high winds caused damage to several suburban communities.
Students “sheltered in place” in school hallways, 25,000 customers lost power and more than 100 flights were delayed.
The Valentine’s Day storm caused several injuries and likely contributed to a high school student’s fatal crash.
At least one tornado touched down shortly after 8 a.m. in Fort Bend County, according to the National Weather Service. The twister sent families scurrying into closets and bathrooms as winds of up to 135 mph tore off chunks of roofing and threw debris across yards.
About 8:30 a.m. a separate tornado struck Van Vleck in rural Matagorda County, the weather service reported. Winds of up to 100 mph flipped RVs, damaged homes and left at least six people with minor injuries in the town 60 miles southwest of downtown Houston.
In the afternoon, children scrambled through the wreckage of their homes as if on a giant jungle gym while adults planned next steps. Eurelio Lopez, 8, clambered over the tan couch in what was left of a modest one-story home that was suddenly missing a wall and the roof.
Not far away, Diane Woodard looked over what had previously been her family’s home — now a pile of lumber atop a silver sedan.
Student killed in crash
Another tornado wreaked havoc 25 miles to the north in the city of Wharton. A towering tree fell into the front room of one home, narrowly missing the bedroom where 52-year-old Faye Green was. Her daughter, Myesha Byars, had to pull an air-conditioning unit out of the window to rescue her mother, who does not have full use of her left side because of a stroke.
At least a dozen other residences, along with the structures at a small storage-unit business, were damaged.
Local authorities responded to power outages, blocked roads and a gas leak, said Paula Favors, the city secretary.
In southwest Montgomery County, far from the funnel clouds, a Magnolia High School student was killed in a crash during the storms.
Darian Eckhardt, who turned 18 last month, was driving to school at about 7:15 a.m. when her vehicle crossed the dividing line of FM 149, a two-lane road with a posted speed limit around 55 mph, said Sgt. Erik Burse of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Her vehicle struck an 18-wheeler.
Eckhardt was pronounced dead at the scene, Burse said. Investigators said heavy rain and winds may have been factors. The truck’s driver was not injured.
Twisters like Tuesday’s are not all that unusual in the Houston area, National Weather Service forecaster Scott Overpeck said, even though Twister Alley lies hundreds of miles to the north and the region is more accustomed to hurricanes.
As the forecasters warned of tornadoes and thunderstorms mid-morning, several school districts and the University of Houston instructed students and staff to shelter in place. Houston teachers continued lessons in hallways.
CenterPoint Energy reported 25,000 customers without power in the morning, mostly in Fort Bend and southwest Harris counties. As of 4:30 p.m., all but 2,000 had power restored.
Delays at airports
Houston’s two main airports both were affected by the stormy weather. Bush Intercontinental Airport saw about 130 flights delayed, the regional airport system reported, while another 20 or so were delayed at Hobby Airport.
The city of Houston activated its emergency operations center to coordinate efforts. The city received no reports of significant damage or flooding and only 11 calls about trees or debris in the streets, spokesman Michael Walter said.
And the storms dropped relatively little rain. The heaviest rainfall in Harris County was 1.7 inches near the Memorial City Mall, according to data from the flood control district.
In Galveston County, fierce winds ripped limbs from trees, damaged a mobile home in Santa Fe and downed utility poles, said Garret Foskit, interim director of emergency management.
Witnesses reported strong winds and minor damage in Jamaica Beach. The wind bowled over power poles on the Bolivar Peninsula, cutting power to Port Bolivar and Crystal Beach, Foskit said. Crews were at work on the peninsula late Tuesday, he said.
Areas southwest of Houston bore the brunt of the storms. By Tuesday evening, the weather service had confirmed at least five tornadoes from 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. in Wharton, Van Vleck, Stafford, Sweeny and Bridlewood Estates, the Fort Bend County neighborhood where Dunford lives.
Another resident, Keira Markle, surveyed the damage shortly after noon Tuesday. Her family’s large standalone garage was reduced to a pile of debris and their car was crumpled. She found her family’s trampoline several houses away.
“I just can’t believe it,” the 37-year-old said after she came home from work to survey the damage. A neighbor stood next to her, nursing a beer after the tense day. Markle said she was glad no one was hurt by the twister.
“It’s just stuff,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s just stuff.”