Texans run into Fort Worth Walmart as tornado rips through region, hitting a school, damaging homes
A Walmart employee shared harrowing video of a man yelling to people in the parking lot to run for shelter in the store as tornadoes spread damage across parts of North Texas and into Oklahoma on Monday, leaving one person dead and injuring at least four others.
‘Get inside, run, run, run!’ one person can be heard frantically screaming at a group of others as they attempt to make their way from the parking lot to the Walmart entrance in Round Rock as the massive tornado approaches.
‘Oh my God, a car!’ the man yells as his camera briefly shows a vehicle being lifted and tossed off the road.
‘Stay away from the windows!’ he adds as he makes his way back into the Walmart.
One woman tweeted a photo of her legs, which were bruised and bloodied, saying she got ‘dragged across the Walmart parking lot by a tornado.’
At least one person was killed and seven others hospitalized in Sherwood Shores, Texas, which sits on the border with Oklahoma, local news outlet KTEN reported.
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A tornado touches down at a Walmart store in Round Rock, Texas, causing severe damage
‘Get inside, run, run, run!’ one person can be heard frantically screaming at a group of others as they attempt to make their way from the parking lot to the Round Rock Walmart entrance
Pictured: the tornado tearing through a Walmart parking lot in Texas on Monday
‘Oh my God, a car!’ the man yells as his camera briefly shows a vehicle, pictured, being lifted and tossed off of the road.
One woman tweeted a photo of her legs, which were bruised and bloodied, saying she got ‘dragged across the Walmark parking lot by a tornado’
A drone takes an aerial photo near Hutto, Texas after heavy thunderstorms passed through central Texas prompting tornadoes in the area
A view of a damaged building after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock, Texas
The devastation from the multiple twisters across North Texas and into Oklahoma included:
- The wall and roof being ripped off Jacksboro High School, about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth
- People were reportedly trapped in collapsed structures in Bowie, 30 miles northeast of Jacksboro
- Dozens of homes were left in ruins after massive tornado touched down in in Round Rock, about 20 miles from Austin
- At least four people were injured, including at least one hospitalization and a rescue was underway for two people in a collapsed structure in Elgin, east of Austin
- A quarter-mile-wide twister struck the southern Oklahoma city of Kingston, leaving behind a roughly 1,300-foot swath of destruction
- At least three injured and several homes destroyed on TX-21 between Cooper and Crockett, Texas
- More than 40,000 customers across Texas were reportedly without power
- Also, about 350 flights in and out of DFW International Airport were canceled Monday, according to flight-tracker Flightaware.com
In Jacksboro, photographs posted on social media showed the leveled high school.
‘It brought tears to my eyes,’ school Principal Starla Sanders told WFAA-TV in Dallas.
Bowie City manager Bert Cunningham said the worst damage was east of the town, with as many as four entrapments reported.
Four people suffered minor injuries, said Emergency Manager Kelly McNabb.
EXTREME close-range intercept of strong #tornado outside of Crockett Texas. Deployed graviton sensors and took a direct hit. We could hear the tornado several minutes before impact pic.twitter.com/xjykiNsl0P
— Reed Timmer (@ReedTimmerAccu) March 22, 2022
Michael Talamantez comforts his girlfriend Derry Schroer after Talamantez’ house on Stratford Drive in Round Rock, Texas was destroyed by a severe storm, reported as a tornado, while they were inside on Monday
People survey the damage to a shopping center after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock
Arturo Ortega and his son Kaysen Ortega, 2, survey the damage to a shopping center after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock
An aerial photo made with a drone shows damage done when a series of tornadoes passed through, near Hutto, Texas
Pictured: an extreme close-range intercept of a massive tornado outside of Crockett, Texas Monday
A tornado tears through Crockett, Texas on Monday, causing widespread damage to houses and buildings in the area
Pictured: large hail storm accompanies a tornado outside of Crockett, Texas on Monday
Pictured: damage at the Jacksboro High School gymnasium after the tornado Monday
A view of a damaged store after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock, Texas
A storm system had been predicted to bring strong tornadoes and large hail to parts of Texas on Monday, then move toward the Deep South, where forecasters warned a severe weather outbreak was possible Tuesday.
Parts of central and east Texas, especially the Austin and College Station areas, also saw severe storms reported as tornadoes, the National Weather Service said.
Photographs posted on social media showed damage to buildings in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin. No injuries were immediately reported.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said during a news conference Monday night in suburban Austin’s Williamson County that the ‘devastating’ storms caused significant damage but the state would stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with those affected, and he was thankful that there no reports of fatalities.
‘We know there are many people whose lives have been completely disrupted and people who’ve lost their homes,’ Abbott said.
‘At the very same time… it may be a miracle also, because even though there’s been some devastating physical damage, to my knowledge, as of right now, there is no report of loss of life, which is just stunning.’
Abbott credited local residents with taking shelter early, and local media who helped report approaching storms.
Logan Kipka (L), an employee, and Jone Latterell-Loganimoce, co-owner of an Uptown Cheapskate franchise location, sit outside the damaged store after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock
A crew from a towing company works to right a vehicle that was damaged after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock
Michael Talamantez looks at his house on Stratford Drive in Round Rock, Texas, after it was destroyed by a tornado while he was inside on Monday March 21, 2022
People look at the damage after a tornado hit a shopping center near I-35 and SH 45 in Round Rock, Texas, on Monday
Commuters stand near their damaged automobiles at the site of a vehicle accident after heavy rain in Bryan, Texas on Monday
Extreme structural damage shown in an aerial photo taken by drone on Monday near Hutto, Texas
Texas bad weather hits the Dallas and Fort Worth county area, issuing tornado watches around the area
The rain was expected to bring relief to some areas of Texas hit by wildfires, but windy weather was expected to follow.
On Tuesday, areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama could see ‘a regional severe weather outbreak,’ the Storm Prediction Center said. That area, including the cities of Baton Rouge and Jackson, Mississippi, could see strong tornadoes Tuesday, forecasters said.
Federal and state authorities in Louisiana reminded thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan because the structures might not withstand the expected weather.
More than 8,000 households are living in such temporary quarters, Bob Howard, spokesman for a joint information center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Louisiana Governor´s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Monday.
In a joint statement, the agencies said floods may cause the most damage.
A view of a damaged vehicle after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock, Texas
People look at an overturned truck in a parking lot after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock, Texas
Arturo Ortega and his son Kaysen Ortega, 2, survey the damage to a shopping center after a tornado in a widespread storm system touched down in Round Rock
‘Repeated bouts of heavy rainfall can occur over the same areas, increasing the risk for flooding,’ the statement said.
‘Move to higher ground if you hear of flood warnings.’
Nearly 1,800 households in trailers provided directly by FEMA are unable to return yet to homes damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020, according to a news release last week.
Another 1,600 trailers were deployed for Hurricane Ida’s displaced households, Howard said, and Louisiana has set out more than 4,400 RV trailers for Ida´s victims under a test program paid for by FEMA.
Anyone living in state or FEMA temporary housing needs to keep cellphones on and fully charged, with the volume high and severe weather alerts enabled, the agencies said.
‘The danger is expected to be highest at night,’ they added.
And, the release noted, the mobile homes and RV trailers are government property that cannot be moved.
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