DALLAS — Officials in Jacksboro, Texas, surveyed the damage Tuesday after a suspected tornado Monday afternoon ripped through the city, tearing open schools and leveling homes.
The National Weather Service reported a radar-confirmed tornado in Jack County around 3:50 p.m. Monday — just as parents were expecting to pick up their schoolchildren and buses were shuttling students off campus from Jacksboro elementary and high schools.
Standing outside the school early Tuesday morning, Jacksboro police Chief Scott Haynes recalled wading through inches of water to reach the elementary school’s hallways where students, parents and faculty were sheltering from the storm.
No fatalities have been reported in Jacksboro as of Tuesday morning. Officials said at the news conference that four people were rescued and nine people total were treated at hospitals for injuries.
“It’s just a miracle,” Haynes said at a news conference.
The elementary school was in the direct path of the possible twister, Haynes said. Jacksboro High School also sustained heavy damage in the storm; video and photos showed the roof of the high school gym almost fully sheared off.
Outside the elementary school, scattered among debris, abandon cars were flipped over or impounded. Haynes said many were left behind by parents who ended up hunkered in the building.
“By the mere hand of God, our community was protected,” Jack County Judge Brian Keith Umphress said.
Jack County Rural Fire Chief Jason Jennings said about 60 to 80 homes were marred or leveled, WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reported.
Sarah Barnes, with the weather service’s Fort Worth office, said meteorologists will fan out to survey the damage across the region. She said “plenty of damage” was reported from Dallas-Fort Worth up to the Red River.
Heavy damage was also reported to the weather service northwest Fort Worth; Carrollton; Paradise; Bowie; Era; Santo and northwest Grayson County.
In Tarrant County, Birdville ISD officials said on social media that part of the roof was mangled at Hardeman Elementary School in Watauga and water leaked into six classrooms. The storm swept through the area Monday evening after school hours.
South of D-FW, there were reports of damage in Mart; Groesbeck; Rosebud; Buckholts and south Bell County, according to the weather service.
Heavy rain also pummeled North Texas. About .88 inches of rain were measured at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Monday, Barnes said.
Flood watches were issued for several low-lying areas on Monday; flooding was captured on video on Abrams Road in Dallas and Colleyville police said Oak Knoll Road and Cheshire Drive were closed because of high water overnight but have since reopened.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, Oncor reported 535 outages affecting more than 40,000 customers across Texas. Few power outages were reported in D-FW early Tuesday.
Most of North Texas was under weather warning, watch or advisory throughout the storms. All of Dallas-Fort Worth was under a tornado watch Monday afternoon. The advisory was upgraded to a tornado warning for parts of Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties, and expired by 7 p.m. Severe thunderstorm warnings were also issued for much of the area, with small hail and winds up to 60 mph reported.
Tornado sirens were heard in North Texas from Fort Worth to Richardson as the band of storms pushed its way eastward in the early evening.
Those advisories have since been lifted. The inclement weather pushed to the southeast Tuesday morning, and some southern counties were under severe thunderstorm warnings. Video footage showed heavy flooding near Houston.
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