Possible tornadoes hit Texas
DALLAS (AP) - April 24, 2008 Officials with the National Weather Service said that crews
would be dispatched across the state Thursday to confirm the
reports of possible tornadoes Wednesday afternoon and evening.
Other than scrapes and scratches, no injuries were immediately
reported from the storms, which brought heavy rain, winds up to 70
mph and baseball-size hail in some counties.
The worst damage appeared to be near the Fort Worth suburb of
Crowley, where four homes were destroyed and nine others damaged
Wednesday evening, said Melissa Patterson, Tarrant County emergency
management officer.
Aerial video of the area showed roofs stripped of shingles and
cars buried beneath the debris of what had once been garages.
"It was just a tremendous roar and tremendous winds,"
homeowner Mike Keith told Dallas-Fort Worth television station
KTVT, adding that his yard was littered with debris.
Earlier in the day, storms hit lightly populated areas near
Patricia in Dawson County, southwest of Lubbock in the western part
of the state. They may have included one or two tornadoes.
"We feel fairly confident on the Patricia one (being a tornado)
because there was a ... spotter out of Lubbock that was on that
storm," said David Hennig, a weather service meteorologist in
Midland.
The storms damaged roofs and knocked down power lines in Jones
County, and at least one tornado was reported in Erath County.
There was also a tornado reported Wednesday evening in far
western Nebraska. The Morrill County sheriff's office said the
storm destroyed a rural house near Bridgeport, but no one was at
home. The weather service office in Cheyenne, Wyo., said a tornado
was spotted south of Bridgeport about 6 p.m.