EF2 tornado left widespread damage in Dallas-Fort Worth area

An outbreak of severe weather that began late on Tuesday afternoon and extended into the evening in the Dallas-Fort Worth area prompted tornado warnings and kicked up powerful wind gusts -- some of them reaching hurricane force -- leaving behind a trail of damage, but no reported fatalities.

On Wednesday afternoon, a preliminary survey from the National Weather Service (NWS) found EF-2 damage in south Arlington, a city about 20 miles west of Dallas and 15 miles east of Fort Worth. The tornado is estimated to have had maximum winds of 115 mph and at one point was 150 yards wide. A survey conducted on Wednesday found that the twister tracked a little over five miles during the seven minutes that it was on the ground.

AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell was on the ground reporting from Arlington on Wednesday morning and captured images some of the destruction the tornado left behind.

"I have a little girl she's five years old, so she was very scared, we're in the closets," Arlington resident Joseph Juma told Wadell. "Then later on we had water coming down in our living room"

At the drive-thru of a Burger Box on South Cooper, two passengers were trapped in their vehicle when the heavy winds caused the overhanging roof to fall on their car. They were rescued by local firefighters.

Lieutenant Richard Fegan of the Arlington Fire Department reported at a press conference on Wednesday that five people with minor injuries had been transported to a hospital Tuesday night.

The Arlington Police Department shared on Twitter that strewn debris forced the closure of Pioneer Parkway as officers and members of Arlington Fire assisted residents with damaged homes and vehicles.

The worst damage was dealt to the Mirage and Waterdance Circle apartment complexes in the area of the Pioneer Parkway. According to NBC-DFW, the normally busy parkway was turned into a makeshift command center for first responders.

"I'm just worried about family photos, and there's some games up there I want to see if they're still okay," Arlington resident Adrian Jones told Wadell.

The driver and passengers of a car were all reported to be safe after a structure collapsed onto a vehicle with people inside in one instance in Arlington.

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A radar image showing the line of thunderstorms that caused damage in the Arlington, Texas, area on Tuesday evening. (AccuWeather)

In Denton, less than 30 miles north-northwest of Dallas, a wind gust of 55 mph was reported. Earlier in the evening, a 65-mph wind gust was reported in Mineral Wells, which is located a little over 60 miles to the west of Dallas.

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