Five dead after powerful storms tear through rural Texan community
A Texas sheriff has said at least five people died after powerful storms tore through a rural community, obliterating homes and leaving thousands of people without power.
The Cooke County sheriff, Ray Sappington, told the Associated Press the victims included three family members who were found in one home near Valley View, a rural community near the border with Oklahoma.
The destructive storms began on Saturday night. Officials said a tornado to the north of Dallas overturned heavy recreational vehicles, shut down an interstate and caused extensive damage to a highway travel centre where drivers had rushed to take shelter.
“Search and rescue is ongoing,” Sappington said. “We’ve already started to do recovery of the deceased, as well. We do have five confirmed [dead] but, sadly, we think that that number is probably going to go up.”
Forecasters had issued tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of both states, as some heat records were broken during the day in south Texas and residents received triple-digit temperature warnings over the weekend.
A tornado crossed into northern Denton County in Texas late on Saturday and overturned tractor-trailer trucks, stopping traffic on Interstate 35, the Denton County community relations director, Dawn Cobb, said in a statement.
The tornado was confirmed near Valley View, moving east at 40mph, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a tornado warning for northern Denton County, Cobb said.
The storm damaged homes, overturned motorhomes and knocked down power lines and trees throughout the area, including in Sanger, Pilot Point, Ray Roberts Lake and Isle du Bois state park.
People who received injuries in the storm were transported to hospital by ground and air ambulances, but the number of injuries in the county was not immediately known, Cobb said. A shelter was also opened in Sanger.
The fire department in the city of Denton, about 37 miles north of Fort Worth, Texas, posted on X that emergency personnel were responding at a marina “for multiple victims, some reported trapped”.
The Claremore police in Oklahoma announced on social media that the city, about 28 miles (45km) east of Tulsa, was “shut down” as a result of storm damage, including downed power lines and trees and inaccessible roads.
Earlier on Saturday night, the National Weather Service’s office in Norman, Oklahoma, said the warning stretched between the northern Noble and far-southern Kay counties, an area north of Oklahoma City. “If you are in the path of this storm take cover now!” it said on X.
A subsequent post at 10.05pm said storms had left the area but warned of a storm moving across north Texas that could affect portions of south central Oklahoma.
At 10.24pm, the weather service office in Fort Worth posted a message warning residents in Era and Valley View they were in the direct path of a possible tornado and to seek shelter immediately. The Fort Worth office continued to post notices and shelter warnings tracking the movement of the storm until midnight and issued a separate severe thunderstorm warning, adding that “golf ball-sized hail” was possible.
The weather service office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said a dangerous storm was moving across the north-eastern part of the state until 2am and issued severe thunderstorm notices for communities including Hugo, Boswell, Fort Towson, Grainola, Foraker and Herd.
The Norman office had compared conditions on Saturday to “a gasoline-soaked brush pile”. Forecasters said any storms that formed could explode with large hail, dangerous winds and tornadoes.
“There’s a small chance most of the matches are duds and we only see a few storms today. Still, that’s not a match I would want to play with. It only takes one storm to be impactful,” it said on Facebook.
Excessive heat, especially for May, was the danger in south Texas, where the heat index was forecast to approach 49C (120F) ) in some spots over the weekend.
The region is on the north end of a heat dome stretching from Mexico to South America, the National Weather Service meteorologist Zack Taylor said.
Sunday was predicted to be the hottest day, with record highs for late May forecast for Austin, Brownsville, Dallas and San Antonio, Taylor said.
Brownsville and Harlingen near the Texas-Mexico border had already set new records on Saturday for 25 May – 37C (99F)) and 38C (100F), respectively – according to the weather service.
Red flag fire warnings were also in place in west Texas, all of New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado. Humidity was very low – under 10% – and wind gusts of up to 60mph (97km/h) were recorded.
“We’ve got very dry air, warm temperatures and strong winds creating a high fire danger over a wide area … that can lead to rapidly spreading or uncontrollable fires,” Taylor said.
Meanwhile, several inches of snow fell on Friday into early Saturday in Rolla, North Dakota, about 10 miles (16km) from the Canadian border.
April and May have been a busy month for tornadoes, especially in the midwest. Climate change is heightening the severity of storms around the world.
April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the US. So far in 2024, the country is already 25% ahead of the average number of twisters, according to the Storm Prediction Centre in Norman.
Iowa was hit hard this week when a deadly twister devastated Greenfield and other storms brought flooding and wind damage elsewhere in the state.
The storm system causing the severe weather was expected to move east as the US Memorial Day weekend continues, bringing rain that could delay the Indianapolis 500 race on Sunday in Indiana along with more severe storms in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.
The risk of severe weather will move into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.