Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Severe storms hit state
Relatives grieve Monday after a Benton County man died at 15207 Pleasant Ridge Road during heavy thunderstorms overnight. The man was killed when a tree fell on his home during the storms, according to Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins. Meteorologists received reports that multiple tornadoes might have touched down as the storm system crossed the state.
DALLAS — Mayor Eric Johnson said Monday the city was “very fortunate” to be assessing only property damage after a tornado tossed trees into homes, tore off storefronts and downed power lines but killed no one in a densely populated area of the city.
A meteorologist said people took shelter thanks to early alerts, and that it was fortunate the tornado struck Sunday evening, when many people were home.
“Anytime you have a tornado in a major metropolitan area, the potential for large loss of life is always there,” said Patrick Marsh, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. “We were very fortunate that the tornado did not hit the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium or the State Fair, where you would have had a lot of people that were exposed.”
The tornado crossed over two major interstates. “If that happened at rush hour, I think we’d be talking about a different story,” he said.
The National Weather Service said the tornado that ripped through North Dallas was an EF-3, which has a maximum wind speed of 140 mph. The agency said another tornado in the suburb of Rowlett was EF-1, with maximum wind speeds of 100 mph.
The late-night storms spawned tornadoes in several states and killed at least four people in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Storm Prediction Center said severe thunderstorms could continue through tonight along the Gulf Coast from southeast Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle,
with damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes possible.
In north Dallas, Dustin and Lauren Collins said they felt lucky as they cleared debris from the yard of their largely intact home.
“When other people’s homes are in your front yard, you just realize — just the magnitude of the storm,” said Lauren Collins, 36.
Dustin Collins, 37, said he gathered his family together after receiving the tornado alert. They climbed into the bathtub and pulled a mattress over them, huddling there with their 8-month-old son.
“We just sat in the bathtub and sang songs, trying to keep everyone calm,” Lauren Collins said.
At a nearby shopping center, the fronts and roofs of stores were ripped away. Ruptured pipes were spewing water Monday morning, drenching the piles of mangled drywall, insulation and steel framed inside the brick building.
Georges Benamou said he was in his bedroom when a tree branch fell through the flat roof of his single-story home and into the living room.
“I heard some crack, crack, crack, and then I heard some trees falling on top of the roof,” he said.
Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said no firefighters were hurt when the storm made the roof of Station 41 collapse.
Tornadoes are not common in October, and cities are rarely hit because they don’t have a big footprint in the tornado belt, according to tornado scientist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
It’s like “randomly throwing darts,” Brooks said.
A study by Brooks last year found that only one-third of the most violent tornadoes hit communities of more than 5,000 people.
The storm system disrupted hundreds of flights in the Dallas area, at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Bentonville and at Memphis International Airport.
About 46,000 electric customers were without power in Dallas and another 19,000 in the surrounding area, said Oncor spokeswoman Connie Piloto. It could take days to restore service.
Associated Press reporters Mallika Sen in New York; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas; Diana Heidgerd in Dallas; Clarice Silber in Austin, Texas; and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.