Tornadoes tear through Dallas/Ft. Worth

[BOfH]

There are quite a few PS members in this area. Stay safe and prayers out!

DALLAS — Tornadoes tore through the Dallas area on Tuesday, tearing roofs off homes, tossing trucks into the air and leaving flattened tractor trailers strewn along highways and parking lots.

The National Weather Service confirmed at least two separate "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Several other developing twisters were reported as a band of violent storms moved north through the metropolitan area. Officials had no immediate information about injuries.

Footage from highway video cameras showed a large, dark funnel cloud moving on the ground not far from a major interstate early Tuesday afternoon. Crumpled orange tractor trailers were later visible in a Dallas County parking lot, as well as flattened trailers along the sides of highways and access roads.

In Lancaster, south of Dallas, local television footage showed homes without roofs while other buildings were flattened.

Plywood was strewn on the grass and on top of buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.

The storm pushed cars into fences and toppled trees. Branches and limbs were scattered across lawns and in the streets. A tow-behind RV was torn apart and crumpled in a driveway where part of a roof of the home was torn off.

"Obviously we're going to have a lot of assessments to make when this is done," Dallas County spokeswoman Maria Arita told The Associated Press.

Dallas Police spokeswoman Sherri Jeffrey said an apparent twister also touched down and caused damage within the city's southern limits, though the extent was not immediately known.

DFW Airport spokesman David Magana told WFAA-TV that airport employees pulled passengers away from glass windows and into inside areas of the airport as the storms moved through.

"We did see some heavy rain at this point we do expect to have number of flights diverted and canceled," Magana said. "We do not have any damage reports at the airport that I am aware of."

A spokeswoman for the Lancaster school district spokeswoman said officials did not immediately know of any damage to schools. Leslie Johnston, spokeswoman for Arlington Independent School District, in between Dallas and Fort Worth, said all schools there had students take shelter and several schools reported power outages.

The weather service said "considerable damage" also was reported in a rural Johnson County, south of Fort Worth.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nationa...4soz7HprAlSfZJ

[x SF med]

I had the dispeasure of riding out the aftermath of the 2000 F5 in FW... I just missed the hit on the PawnCo building on my way home... I had $5K of roof damage that day.

Please check in if you live in the area.

[Dusty]

There's a photo of a tractor trailer flying through the air on Drudge, if you hurry.

[Gypsy]

Came pretty close to my company's home office.

Hope all of our members are safe, sound off.

[alelks]

Originally Posted by Dusty

There's a photo of a tractor trailer flying through the air on Drudge, if you hurry.

Video here: This is some amazing footage. The original is much longer.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=741_1333483538

[dr. mabuse]

Drove from Carrollton down thru west side of Dallas, went south of DFW airport down 360 along Arlington, west on I20 to south Ft.Worth while all of this was going on. Except for some heavy rain and light hail, missed it all.

Damage reported north, south, east, and west of area where we live. It was all around, yet nothing except rain and minor hail around Joe Pool Lake.

Weird.

[Santo Tomas]

Richard is up there near DFW somewhere. Anyone heard from him?

[B36reconman]

Just west of DFW.. we had pea sized hail, heavy rain and strong wind, however incurred no damage..I am about 10 minutes from the airport and they had over 110 aircraft damaged and AA canceled in excess of 400 flights...damage south of me in the Arlington area was extensive...Not talked to Richard yet this am...

[Richard]

Just some heavy rains where I live in Far North Dallas near Campbell Green as the sirens were going off because of a tornado warning. I was doing a 6th grade World History class in Richardson.

DFW Airport took a big hit from a hail storm on the leading edge of the weather front and hundreds of flights were cancelled.

The outlying suburban areas around here usually take the brunt of these storms as the city is about 3 degrees warmer and forms a chimney effect which has a tendency to push the storms around to the North or South.

Since many of these storms come into the area from the West and then get pushed around to either the North or South before heading East, Fort Worth and the areas like Kennedale, Arlington, Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Lancaster, and Denton get the worst of it - then it forms again on the other side of the Metroplex and hits the areas like Mesquite, Rockwall, Forney, Greenville, Gun Barrel City, Athens, etc.

Those areas got hit pretty hard yesterday.

Richard

I was working, mostly outside, up until about 3pm when it started to hit pretty heavy here in Plano/Collin County area. It was the longest duration I have ever heard the sirens sounding, and I have lived here since 1978. Last I heard was there were 12 tornados, not sure if there were more reported after that. Also, the last I heard there were no injuries as of yesterday, I am not sure if that has changed either.

Having grown up here in tornado alley, you get used to living with the threat, and massive storms, but prey the tornados don't touch down. We were rather lucky from what I can gather.

Glad to hear others are safe!

UPDATE I heard from a friend a little while ago that channel 8 WFAA reported there were 15 tornados in thr DFW area yesterday.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Richard

Just some heavy rains where I live in Far North Dallas near Campbell Green as the sirens were going off because of a tornado warning. I was doing a 6th grade World History class in Richardson.

Richard

That brings back a clear memory. I climbed up on the fence when I lived off Arapaho as a kid and watched a twister touch down out by Owens Sausage. First one I ever remember seeing.

That's a real alley out there.