At least 2 dead after destructive tornadoes tear across southern Plains
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Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes rampaged across parts of the southern Plains on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more.
"Take shelter immediately. This is a life-threatening situation," Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer warned as a massive wedge tornado was heading toward Idabel, Oklahoma, which is a town in the southeastern corner of the state. The tornado, which would later be rated an EF3 by the National Weather Service, was responsible for 1 of the storm fatalities on Friday. The other occurred nearby, just to the south in Texas.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued the first tornado emergency since the springtime for Idabel and extended into Broken Bow and Eagletown as the tornado continued to churn and tear buildings apart in McCurtain county.
After viewing all the homes in Idabel, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt confirmed on his social media that a 90-year-old man was killed, The Associated Press reported. The man's body was found at his home in the Pickens area of McCurtain County, which is roughly 36 miles north of Idabel.
According to the Texarkana Gazette, the twister created "total destruction" on the east and south sides of Idabel. A medical center, church and school were torn apart.
At least 19 preliminary tornado reports had been recorded in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas by the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. The majority of the tornado reports came from Texas, which had at least 12 preliminary tornado reports.
The severe weather charged through northeastern Texas on Friday, the thunderstorms rapidly escalating as tornado warnings, hail reports and flooding threatened the region. AccuWeather had been warning since late October that the fall severe weather season would kick off with this storm charging in from the Rockies before clashing with moisture drawn up from the Gulf.
The first tornado of the day struck the community of Powderly, near Paris, Texas, in Lamar County. Here, homes strong winds toppled homes, reportedly trapping people inside. A photo posted on Twitter by KTEN News Weekend Meteorologist Hunter Donahoe showed a home that had been completely destroyed, what remained of the walls and roof crumpled on tile and wood flooring.
On Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service Forth Worth found damage consistent with a high-end EF3 tornado in Lamar County, with winds up to 160 mph.
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Other photos showed a section of power line poles either tilted or toppled over, the wires tangled and torn. A few of the lines had even fallen into a nearby road, and a damaged storage unit lay discarded near the asphalt as if tossed aside like a toy.
"It's devastating," Powderly resident Steven Roberts had told storm chaser Brandon Clement. "But all of this can be replaced. [My] family is safe. [There's] no replacing them."
While racing home from work, tornado sirens blaring, Roberts received a text from his wife saying "It's on top of us," referring to the tornado, followed by a phone call that she couldn't get out from where she had taken shelter. The signal had cut out there, but by the time Roberts had arrived, his wife and kids had managed to escape from the closet where they had been sheltering.
"When you're not here to protect your family, it's scary. It brought me to tears just thinking they went through that without me," Roberts said.
Judge Brandon Bell declared a disaster, the highest elected official in Lamar County, which includes Powderly, declared a disaster in the area in a step toward getting federal assistance and funding, The Associated Press reported. Bell added that at least two dozen people had been injured across the county
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A potential tornado churning near Sulphur Springs, Texas. (AccuWeather/Tony Laubach) |
Roughly 50 miles to the south of Powderly, AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Laubach caught a video of the possible tornado in Sulphur Springs, Texas, before it lifted.
A survey team determined the tornado that impacted areas southwest of Sulphur Springs, Texas, was a preliminary EF 2 with maximum winds up to 120 mph, according to NWS Fort Worth.
"This situation is getting incredibly dangerous," AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell reported from Athens, Texas, where a tornado-warned storm rolled through. The Athens Steel Building Corp. took a "direct hit" from the storm, he added, and video showed part of the building heavily damaged. The business had reportedly shut down earlier during the day, so no one had been in the building when the storm hit.
The tornado that impacted Athens was given a preliminary EF2 rating by the National Weather Service on Saturday. Max winds were estimated to be up to 115 mph.
Just north of Athens, in Brasher, Texas, cows grazed on the grass as a large twister barreled across the surrounding farmland. In a video, the cows are seemingly unphased by the large tornado that races across the background, spinning up debris as it goes.
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Cows grazing as a tornado barrels through farmland in Brashear, Texas, on Friday, Nov. 4. (Brayden Siau via Storyful) |
As Idabel, Oklahoma, was under a tornado emergency, a gust of 108 mph was recorded as a potential tornado tore through the area, striking the Oklahoma Mesonet site.
"At approximately 6:50 pm, the Oklahoma Mesonet site at Idabel was struck by what is believed to be a tornado. The site recorded a maximum wind gust of 108 mph with the expected precipitous pressure drop," officials at the site posted on Twitter.
Seven people had minor injuries as a result of the storm in Idable, according to Emergency Management Director Cody McDaniel. The Idabel police said 100 homes were affected by the tornado and 63 were destroyed.
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West of Idabel, strong winds from the storm caused a semi to flip at Highway 69/75 and Chickasaw Road in Durant, according to Oklahoma Emergency Management.
Power outages across Texas topped 55,000 customers in Texas after the storms moved through Friday night. By Saturday morning, over 34,000 people in Texas were still in the dark, according to PowerOutage.US. Over 21,000 customers in Louisiana and 12,000 in Arkansas woke up to no power, as well.
Hundreds of flights arriving and leaving Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were either canceled or delayed as the storms ramped up, with over 600 flights delayed, according to FlightAware.
Tornadoes first began to spin up in Texas near the evening rush hour, but the storm had caused traffic problems well before even entering the state. Multiple people were injured in a 100-vehicle pileup along an icy overpass in Denver early Friday morning after the city received its first snowfall overnight from the same weather system that produced severe storms in Texas and other areas of the Southern Plains. An hour earlier, there had been another smaller multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 25, according to Adams County Fire Rescue. There were no injuries reported from this crash.
Additional reporting by Bill Wadell.
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