Severe weather blew through North Texas on Friday afternoon and into the early stages of the night. Multiple homes were damaged when a storm system, including damaging winds, heavy rain, hail and tornadoes, surged east over the course of the evening. The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for most of North Texas, including Dallas County, that expired at 8 p.m. The watch for 36 counties in Texas extended north all the way through Oklahoma and into parts of Arkansas.
Multiple confirmed tornadoes touched down over the course of the night, including one over Point, 17 miles southeast of Greenville, headed toward Sulphur Springs. The storm system continued near East Texas cities of New Boston, Naples, Brookston and Paris. The Paris News confirmed “significant” damage to the small rural community of Powderly. A tornado left a “miles-long trail of destruction” to the area about 10 miles north of Paris, according to the publication. Several tornado warnings had been issued throughout the D-FW region over the course of Friday, but all reported tornadoes were northeast of the Dallas area. Oncor reported about 500 outages with the majority in North Texas at around 5:17 p.m.
The outages affected over 17,000 customers. Severe thunderstorm warnings were extended earlier in the afternoon in areas that included Dallas, Plano, Garland Fort Worth, Denton, Lewisville, Mesquite, DeSoto and Lancaster. Earlier in the day, Gov. Greg Abbott increased the readiness level of the Texas State Emergency Operations Center to a Level II.
This escalated response designation activates state resources to support local emergency services. “The State of Texas continues readying resources to protect Texans against severe weather threats impacting our state, and we urge Texans to heed the guidance of their emergency officials to keep themselves and their loved ones safe,” Abbott said in a statement. The storm system prompted the cancellation of 300 flights out of DFW International and Dallas Love Field airports. The National Weather Service warned drivers to never taken shelter under an overpass. Instead, drivers should take shelter in the nearest sturdy building.
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