‘IT LOOKS LIKE A WAR ZONE’
Tornado rips through Dallas area
A tornado plowed through eastern Texas late Sunday, ripping buildings apart, throwing cars around and knocking out power to nearly 100,000 households.
No deaths were reported in the state, but images and accounts in the aftermath of the storm revealed the devastating extent of the damage.
“There was no time for a warning,” resident Angela Boston told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s unbelievable. It looks like a war zone.”
At Fish City Grill, where a dozen staffers and customers had to hide in a walk-in cooler, co-owner Bill Bayne told the Dallas Morning News the building “looks like bombs went off.”
Also leveled was the studio of Dallas-based KNON-FM radio.
“We . . . heard the building and could hear the glass windows shattering everywhere along with debris banging around,” said radio host Lew Morris, who hid in a studio bathroom with another DJ.
“We waited until all the noise died down,” he said. “We walked out to see the studio he was just broadcasting from destroyed.”
One Dallas shopping center was so hard hit that a Planet Fitness there “appeared to be gone,” the
Star-Telegram said.
Across the street a truck hauling a trailer was lifted up and dropped on top of a Jeep in the parking lot, the newspaper said.
Gov. Greg Abbott said on Twitter Monday that he had issued disaster declarations in 16 Texas counties, which will streamline funding for recovery and rebuilding efforts.
The twister also grounded 96 flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field, and delayed another 263 into Monday morning.
Still, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the city was lucky.
“I think we should consider ourselves very fortunate that we did not lose any lives — no fatalities and no serious injuries,” Johnson said.