Tornado injures dozens, damages 500+ buildings in Central Texas
TEMPLE, Texas - A tornado caused widespread damage in Central Texas Wednesday night.
The National Weather Service will send teams to survey the damage in Temple, which is located about 35 miles southwest of Waco or 60 miles northeast of Austin.
A tornado there damaged or destroyed more than 500 homes and businesses. It also flipped vehicles, snapped power poles, and damaged four fire stations.
NWS Fort Worth gave the tornado a preliminary rating of an EF-2 with winds of 120 miles per hour.
"There's major damage. Our whole strip down here is just destroyed. All the buildings, all the restaurants," said Temple resident Laura Nitcher.
Oncor says there are numerous power poles and transmission towers down, leaving thousands of people without power.
"Our restoration and assessment teams have been working throughout the night to get customers back on and to get a handle on the damage to our infrastructure," said Grant Cruise from Oncor.
FOX 4 viewer Heidi Greensides shared a picture that shows missing walls and a buckled garage at her home.
Another homeowner said she had to take shelter during the storm and now feels thankful the damage was limited to a downed tree in her front yard.
"We could hear the wind so we went to the bathroom because my husband said it didn’t sound like normal because it had more of a roar to it. So we went to the bathroom and you could just hear it beating on the house," Nitcher said.
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Garrett Beck is a Fort Worth-based electrician. But nothing from his experience prepared him for what happened last week. "I wish it was on a lottery ticket and not getting struck by lightning."
Temple officials have declared a state of emergency.
They are asking people to stay out of the areas impacted by the storm to allow space for first responders and residents to clean up and recover.
"The Texas spirit really rises to the occasion and emphasizes the goodness in humanity," said Police Chief Shawn Reynolds. "We have observed neighbor helping neighbor, neighbor helping friends and neighbors helping strangers."
The city's fire chief, Mitch Randles, said about 30 people suffered minor injuries, but there were no fatal or life-threatening injuries.
The weather trapped some firefighters inside their stations.
"Two of them actually had to self-extricate themselves from their stations as they were damaged by the storm as it passed," said Randles.
Temple Mayor Tim Davis says the city has contracted with a company out of Alabama to help with debris cleanup.
Damage in Belton | Courtesy: @jagsjackett
The neighboring city of Belton was also hit.
Schools in both cities are closed on Thursday. Belton ISD also postponed its high school graduation ceremonies.