At least 14 people were killed in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas and many others were injured as an overnight storms spawned tornadoes, including one that ripped through communities around the Denton-Cooke County line according to The Associated Press and Dallas Morning News reporting.
At least seven people were killed in rural Cooke County, Texas, north of Dallas-Fort Worth. In Oklahoma, guests at an outdoor wedding were injured according to the AP.
It was just the latest severe weather this month to take and disrupt lives. On Wednesday evening, more than 30 people were injured and hundreds of structures were damaged after a tornado touched down in Temple. Last week, five people died in Iowa when tornadoes swept parts of the state. Earlier this month, the Houston area was also hit by severe storms and flooding .
The National Weather Service said Sunday morning that two survey teams were working to determine the strength of the storm that hit the Cooke-Denton County area. Here’s what we know:
What time did the storm hit?
At 10:24 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service issued a bulletin: “SEEK SHELTER NOW!!! Era and Valley View in the direct path of this possible tornado. A strong tornado could develop quickly.”
That was followed at 10:40 with another seek-shelter video announcing: “Tornado observed on spotter video moving east. Will cross I-35 shortly between Valley View and Sanger.”
Valley View in Cooke County is about 60 miles northwest of downtown Dallas and has a population of less than 1,000 people, according to Census Bureau data. It has about 300 households.
Sanger in Denton County has a population of about 24,000 and about 9,000 households, according to census data.
What areas were affected?
In Texas, the storm hit a community of about 50 to 75 mobile homes and manufactured houses south of Valley View and west of Interstate 35, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington said in an update on the Weather Channel, as well as a truck stop where drivers had taken shelter.
The path of destruction was about “three to four miles from west to east” in the southern part of Cooke County, near the Denton County line.
Aerial footage showed the remains of what were homes, damaged homes, destroyed boats, crushed vehicles, and overturned trackers and semis.
Barbed wire fences latched onto some of the debris the tornado swept from the homes while other things, like a shattered mirror and a silver shimmery little girl’s baller shoe, landed in the roads and ditches.
How many people died?
At least seven deaths were confirmed in Cooke County, according to the AP, including three members of a family who were found in a home near Valley View. Two of the dead were children, ages 2 and 5.
“There’s nothing left of this house,” Sappington told the AP. “It’s just a trail of debris left. The devastation is pretty severe.”
A Sunday evening post from the Cooke County Emergency Management and Fire Marshal’s Office Facebook account reported that 69 people were taken to area hospitals. The governor in an address Sunday estimated over 100 were injured total.
No people were killed in Celina and only minor injuries were reported. Most severe damage there was confined to two streets, Prairie Meadow Lane and Myrtle Drive, according to Celina Mayor Ryan Tubbs. The area of about 15 houses saw six destroyed, Collin County Fire Marshal Jason Browning said, debris scattered across front lawns.
At least five people were killed in Arkansas, according to the AP, and two more in Mayes County, Oklahoma.
Where’s the reunification center? What about emergency shelters?
A Gainesville QuikTrip is serving as a reunification center. About 40-60 people had been bused from a Shell gas station that ”took a major hit.” Many drivers had sought shelter from the storm there. Sappington said many of them took shelter in the restroom and that probably saved their lives.
The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter that can house up to 58 people in an annex building of Valley View’s First Baptist Church. Thirty-five people sheltered there Saturday night, said Tauna Conk, a Red Cross program manager. The church recently constructed the building and outfitted it with showers in the event it would ever need to be used as an emergency shelter, Conk said.
For people impacted by the storm in Sanger, a shelter was opened at the Sanger ISD Indian Gym, according to a Denton County Office of Emergency Management social media post. The shelter will remain open overnight.
How to help those impacted by the North Texas tornadoes?
Denton County Office of Emergency Management, in a social media post, said those wishing to help can donate to the United Way of Denton County.
The city of Celina set up a donation drop site at Grace Bridge, 402 S. Oklahoma St. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Items needed include water, Gatorade, trash bags, gloves and cleaning supplies.
Cooke County officials say cash deposits to the First United Bank, 101 N. Broadway St., in Greenville is the best way to help those in need. Donations to an account managed by the Cooke County
“Let the teller know you would like to donate to the [volunteer organizations active in disaster] account/fund,” a Facebook post said. “The organization is managed by Cooke County residents who will ensure the money is used to assist local residents.”
Staff writers Julia James, Lana Ferguson, Claire Ballor, Uma Bhat, Lilly Kersh and Jamie Landers; and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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