DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) – The Dallas-Fort Worth area escaped major damage, but that wasn’t the case in Grayson County.
“The National Weather Service has already confirmed a tornado hit Bells,” said Sarah Somers, the director of the Grayson County Office of Emergency Management. “That storm system moved through the city of Howe first and we believe it was a tornado there as well. There were also storms in Whitesboro. The National Weather Service will be coming up here to conduct surveys to determine exactly what happened in our community.”
Five people were hurt in Tuesday night’s storms. “It is our understanding that four of those injuries were sustained while folks were in vehicles. One woman was at her home,” said Somers.
Classes have been called off Wednesday in Howe, Bells, and Collinsville school districts. Denison High School will also be closed.
Crews are working to restore power to thousands of homes and businesses. “At it’s height, about eight thousand were without electricity. We were down to about half of that amount at 6:30 a.m.”
Lightning is believed to have caused a number of house fires overnight. In Frisco, a family managed to escape their burning home on Nottingham Lane. Firefighters arrived to find flames shooting through the roof. Neighbors said they saw a bolt of lightning hit the chimney. Fires were also reported in Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano and Waxahachie.
Cars started lining up under overpasses in Fort Worth more than an hour before rain started falling. At Loop 820 and Camp Bowie, some drivers said they remembered the region’s worst storms and wanted to protect their cars. “There was a major hail storm during Mayfest one year. There was one before that. It wasn’t big hail. It was probably nickel size, but it piled up like snow.”
The storms forced the Texas Rangers to find shelter for some of their fans. The upper deck of Globe Life Park was cleared from about the sixth inning to the middle of the eighth. “We had to stay inside the gift shop and they wouldn’t let us leave,” said one fan. Others said they were happy to stay at the ballpark through the delay and see the Rangers beat the Yankees. “You have to deal with the weather and support your team,” shouted one man.
There was no major damage in Arlington.
Bad weather is expected again Friday evening and early Saturday morning.
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