8 tornadoes hit Northeast Texas

| Mother Nature

Three documented tornadoes touched down in Van Zandt, Denton and Rockwall counties, according to the National Weather Service, and severe weather caused storm damage in Wood and Franklin counties.

“As far as we know, there were no major injuries or fatalities,” Matt Stalley, meteorologist with the Dallas-Fort Worth station of the NWS said.

The tornado in Denton County was categorized as a EF-0, with maximum winds of 75 miles per hour and minor damage, according to the NWS. In included the community of Krum.

The tornado in Rockwall county was also categorized as an EF-0, with maximum winds of 70 mph, the NWS said. The Leon Tuttle Athletic Complex reported minor damage to the NWS.

There were four touchdowns of a tornado in Van Zandt county, mainly affecting the community of Canton, were categorized as two EF-2s and two EF-1s, the NWS said.

According to Van Zandt county Emergency Management systems, one of the EF-1s had wind speeds of 90 mph, and the other EF-1 had winds of 100 mph. The EF-2 that impacted Whitton had winds from 120 to 130 mph, EMS said.

At 4:32 p.m., a multi-vortex tornado was confirmed in Van Zandt county, according to FOX4. Towns in the path of the storm included Mabank, Kemp, Prairieville, Becker and Canton. By 4:56 p.m., Van Zandt County Sheriff reported a tornado on the ground at N 47 and E 16 with debris on the ground.

At 5:09 p.m., Mid-level rotation indicated on the radar the tornado was moving on I-20 Westbound near Canton, the NWS said, and urged those in its path to take shelter. At 5:18, there were reports of debris at the Canton Trade Grounds, according to FOX4.

The NWS confirmed that the Van Zandt tornadoes touched down at Whitton, Canton, Northeast Canton and Cedar Creek Reservoir.

“We’ve got teams that are looking at damage out in Kaufman and Van Zandt county. We also have a couple of folks up through the north as well in parts of Fannin county investigating some damage up there,” Stalley said. “Lots of areas to look at, lots of reports, things we’re all trying to compile and consolidate here.”

Communities that may have been affected by severe weather include, but are not limited to: Phalba, Terrell, Quinlan, Wallace, Jackson, Scott, Grand Saline, Lawrence Springs, Wentworth, Mobile City, Emory, Alba, Mineola, Winnsboro, Quitman, Pleasant Grove, Golden, Forest Hills, Yantis, Edgewood, Fruitvale and Point.

“We take all reports of any severe weather,” Stalley said. “We will investigate damage that we believe could be tornado-related, because we have to assign a rating to these and determine how strong they were and what the possible wind speeds were. We will also make the determination between whether something could have been a tornado or was straight-line winds.”

The NWS encourages residents who have photographic or video evidence or possible tornado sightings to contact NWS investigators in the area assessing storm damage.

“We have to have picture and video evidence from spotters. It certainly helps if you have a firsthand account, but you don’t always have that. We will investigate the damage itself, so lots of clues based on how things look in the debris and what was damaged and the extent of the damage and how it’s played out to determine what happened,” Stalley said.

Input from the public is also important for NWS data collection, said meteorologist Patricia Sanchez.

“We could always use more reports from the public,” Sanchez said. “If people have any more information, we always appreciate it.”

According to Stalley and Sanchez, the NWS thinks the warning systems were effective in protecting residents from loss of life or injury due to severe weather.

“With the tools we have, we do the best job we can do,” Sanchez said. “This is part of our mission, to get the information out.”

“We were glad to hear that people were able to get warnings and get to safety,” Stalley said.

— News-Telegram reporters Tammy Vinson, Todd Kleiboer and Quinten Boyd contributed to this report.