Savage storms spun off tornadoes, hurled hail the size of teacups and left tens of thousands of North Texans huddled in roadside ditches and emergency shelters Friday evening.
In Fort Worth, a 28-year-old man was killed when winds whipped a pile of lumber atop him. He apparently suffered a heart attack and died at a hospital.
A few miles north in Haltom City, a tornado caused the region's most dramatic damage shortly after 6 p.m. – ripping the roofs from homes, businesses and a Baptist church. The twister touched down at a Minyard supermarket, then cut a path east along State Highway 121, city spokeswoman Fran Burns said. At least two people were injured and taken to hospitals, but Ms. Burns did not know the extent of their injuries.
"It touched down right in the middle of the building," said 20-year-old Michael Clay, a Minyard employee.
"Right between aisle 5 and 6."
At the grocery store, on Beach Street north of Highway 121, employees and customers ran to the meat vault for protection.
"I don't have a job now, but I'm so glad to be alive," Mr. Clay said.
Lt. Kent Worley, a Fort Worth fire spokesman, said five people at the store suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization.
A tractor-trailer business and an RV sales center also sustained significant damage.
The Red Cross opened a shelter in Haltom City and offered assistance.
As the storms sped east, accompanied at each stop by warning sirens, funnel clouds were spotted across Tarrant, Dallas and Rockwall counties.
"We had a lot of reports of funnel clouds, mostly in Tarrant County," said Bill Bunting, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Fort Worth office. "It was a very severe storm. This is spring in North Texas, and we know this is the time that we're most vulnerable to that kind of weather."
Mr. Bunting said there were reports of isolated damage in Dallas and Tarrant counties.
A roof was reportedly blown off a grocery store in Royse City, and similar damage occurred at an apartment complex in Dallas.
Hail – ranging in size from pea to baseball and larger – also pelted the region.
At Texas Motor Speedway, about 35,000 people at the NASCAR Nextel Cup qualifying races moved to safety as the storm passed.
Qualifying for Sunday's Samsung 500 was canceled. It was the first time that cup qualifying races were rained out at TMS since the inaugural Interstate Batteries 500 in 1997.
The storms moved into downtown Dallas just before the Mavericks-Jazz game at American Airlines Center. Officials rushed fans past metal detectors and into the bowl area near the court for protection.
In East Dallas, metal debris was strewn throughout a neighborhood near Buckner Boulevard and Gross Road.
Ubaldo Prado said he saw the storm approaching and quickly went inside his house.
"Something loud came – you could hear it – like an airplane. When this happened you couldn't see anything [outside]. It wasn't good. I won't forget that noise."
TXU Electric Delivery reported at least 36,000 weather-related power outages across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Crews were out at various sites restoring service, a spokeswoman said.
The storms also caused significant delays at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Ramp operations closed because of lightning about 6:15 p.m. At 6:30, D/FW began to see heavy rain and hail the size of golf balls, which lasted about 10 minutes. There were no reports of damage to buildings or aircraft, and flight operations later resumed.
Across North Texas, Friday night demonstrated the power and capriciousness of severe spring weather.
Collin and Denton counties appear to have emerged relatively unscathed from the night's storms.
"We just had mainly pea-sized to nickel-sized hail, almost countywide," said Jody Gonzalez, Denton County's emergency management coordinator.
Terry Grisham, executive administrator of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department, said the unincorporated portions of that county appear to have "dodged a bullet."
"I have not gotten any reports of any major damage," Mr. Grisham said. "We seem to have had a lot of rain and a lot of hail."
There were reports of damage in northeast Fort Worth, the State Highway 121 area near Haltom City, and a residential subdivision near Alliance Airport.
Streetlights were out along Highway 121, and trucks were turned over at Trinity Boulevard and East Loop 820.
On Wheeler Street in Fort Worth, the steeple atop the South Haltom Community Church was sheared off and deposited at least a block away, close to a mangled billboard.
However, most of the houses nearby were unharmed.
In Haltom City, residents and business owners were left to pick up the pieces as darkness fell on the city.
Michael Freeman, a Dallas Police Department crime analyst who lives in nearby Saginaw, said he could see a funnel cloud forming in the distance at about 5:45 p.m.
"It was massive, gray and dark," Mr. Freeman said. "It was huge."
As the storm quickly rolled through, his wife and 11-month-old son huddled in a bathroom as baseball-size hail pelted his two brand-new vehicles.
"I got slammed," he said. "Our cars are destroyed. It looks like someone took a hammer to them. It looks bad.
"After it blew past, I looked at my newborn, and said, 'At least we're fine, at least we're safe.' "
Behind the Haltom City Minyard, several homes were severely damaged, and the road was choked with standing water, insulation, roofing tarpaper and part of the supermarket's ventilation system.
A tree was poking out of the roof of Ruth Gunson's house on Harper Street.
She said she made it safely to her father's house.
"I guess this is where I'm staying," Ms. Gunson said, standing on her father's porch and scanning the damage.
Now the 37-year-old said she has to worry about looters.
Her father, Fred Martin, said he was angry that home repair contractors were already in the neighborhood soliciting business.
"Vultures," he said, pointing to a business card he had thrown on the ground.
FORT WORTH, Texas - A fast-moving line of thunderstorms carrying rain, hail - some the size of baseballs - and high winds blasted North Texas Friday evening, destroying commercial buildings and homes a few miles east of downtown Fort Worth.
One man was fatally injured when building materials at a lumberyard collapsed. A Fort Worth fire department spokesman said the man apparently died of a heart attack, but the cause of death was pending an autopsy Friday night.
No other serious injuries were reported, the spokesman said.
National Weather Service officials confirmed one tornado touched down near the intersection of Loop 820 and Interstate 30 in Fort Worth.
But observers reported seeing funnel clouds touch down in several locations as a fast-moving storm rolled east toward Dallas.
To the west of Tarrant County, reports trickled in of another tornado near Boyd in Wise County. Even further west, reports of widescale hail damage mounted.
High winds carved a hole out of the roof at Minyard Food Store, sending debris through the neighborhood. The store's windows blew out, and one employee said her car was moved at least 15 feet.
"A helicopter could sit down in the store" through the hole in the roof, a clerk said.
Tennis ball-sized hail fell onto motorists near Haltom High School. Desperate motorists veered to the side of the road, looking for quick shelter.
Many reports came in regarding a funnel cloud at several spots along Loop 820 north and east of Fort Worth. They may or may not be multiple reports of the same event.
In the city of Benbrook, southwest of Fort Worth, eyewitnesses saw a tornado touch down momentarily traveling east.
"There were power flashes, which were signs for a brief touchdown, or what's called a gust nado (strong straight wind) along the leading edge," said storm chaser Clint Perkins, who was in that area.
At Texas Motor Speedway, between Fort Worth and Denton, racing fans camping out for this weekend's NASCAR races took shelter even before the city's sirens began to sound, said Juan Ortiz, emergency management coordinator for Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
"It looks OK so far - no reports of major damage," Ortiz said.
During the day, practice for the Nextel Cup Series was postponed twice because of rain.
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport halted ramp operations at 6:08 p.m. as the thunderstorm passed overhead. The airport was pelted with golf ball-sized hail, according to airport police, necessitating the temporary shutdown of the Skylink trains. At 6:35 p.m. the Skylink stations were evacuated and passengers were moved outside airport security at each terminal as a precaution.
"The National Weather Service gave us ample warning and the airlines and our terminal managers moved passengers away from windows and into shelters or ticketing halls," D/FW spokesman Ken Capps said.
There were no reports of damage to the airport or parked aircraft. Skylink reopened after 7 p.m. and flights resumed shortly after that.
Earlier Friday afternoon, a tornado sighting was reported out of Young County, which is about 100 miles west of Fort Worth, but NWS meteorologists had not confirmed it.
At one point, hail the size of golf balls - and some larger - smashed roofs and broke out car windshield throughout the Baylor County city of Seymour. There was so much of it, Ray Lynn Moore said, the ground was white, as though it had snowed.
"It was a bad one," said Moore, owner of Moore Used Cars, standing outside a home he is trying to sell - a home now featuring several broken windows. The story at his used car lot was much the same. Broken windows. Dented hoods. "I'm in trouble."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram staff writers Bill Hanna, Bill Miller, Rick Herrin, Melissa Vargas, Patrick McGee, Bill Teeter, Ian McVea and Dan X. McGraw contributed to this report.
Troy Brakefield, Staff Writer
Severe wind, hail and rain pounded parts of Plano Friday evening while there were unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in Collin County and nearby areas.
At 3:10 p.m. yesterday, the National Weather Service issued a statement predicting a “high risk for severe storms” including possible baseball-sized hail for Friday evening across most of North Texas.
The NWS predicted scattered thunderstorms developing ahead of a dry line and a warm front moving into the area. Meteorologists also anticipated strong winds to change directions with height, causing potential rotations and producing “significant severe weather.”
About 6 p.m., severe rains fell on the city as several thunderstorms extended from the Gainesville area to North Texas, traveling northeast at 40 mph.
Tara Dudzik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, said several “touchdowns” had been reported in the area as of 7:15 p.m., but there had been no confirmed tornadoes at that time. Plano Police officials said Collin County sirens sounded at 6:30 p.m. in response to a tornado warning.
At 6:37 p.m., NWS meteorologist reported thunderstorms nine miles south of Plano. Winds were reported to be as strong as 80 mph in Dallas County and ping pong ball-sized hail came down in Fort Worth. An RV park in Haltom City experienced major damage as winds knocked some vehicles on their side.
The NWS issued a thunderstorm warning that remained in effect until 7:45 p.m., but, by that time, the brunt of the storm had passed to the south of the city, affecting parts of Garland, Rowlett and Rockwall.
The NWS called for “windy and much cooler conditions” today and possible patchy frost Sunday.
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NOTE TO TECHNICIANS:
WE HAVE CONTACTED SEVERAL BODYS SHOPS AND PDR CO IN THE MONTGOMERY AREA AND FOUND MINOR REPORTS OF HAIL DAMAGES.
THE HAIL WAS VERY SOFT AND OUR RESEARCH SHOWED VERY LITTLE DAMAGE
GO TO WWW.YOUTUBE.COM SEARCH ALABAMA HAIL STORM 2007 FOR VIDEO OF THIS HAIL STORM.
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