A tornado in East Texas caused severe damage and left some people injured Friday evening, as storms snaked their way across northern and eastern Texas.
The tornado, spotted shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, caused severe damage to a variety store and a sporting goods store in Lindale, about 85 miles east of Dallas.
People who gathered inside Hibbett Sports, which took a direct hit, said they gathered in a central room inside the store as the walls and roof collapsed. Everyone got out OK.
Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith says there are reports of several injuries, though the extent of those injuries isn't yet known. Smith says fallen tree limbs and power lines are slowing first-responders.
One driver shot video as floodwaters washed out a culvert and the road and swept it all downstream,
Outside Lindale, the tornado just milled Stacey Kirkham's farm house.
"About that time I felt the pressure in my ears change, ears started popping," Kirkham said."Then we just heard all this racket and banging on the outside walls and we were in there a good while."
Weather Connection
Connecting you with your forecast and all the things that make North Texas weather unique.
The Mayor of Lindale says he has issued a disaster declaration. The Red Cross has sent workers to Lindale to open a shelter for people displaced by the storm.
In nearby Upshur County, 15 to 20 homes have been reported damaged or destroyed in a rural area near Big Sandy, about 20 miles northeast of Lindale, said sheriff's dispatcher Jeremy Henderson. There were no immediate reports of injuries there.
Elsewhere, at least one tornado was spotted briefly in the Sherman-Denison area of Texas just across the Red River from southern Oklahoma. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from that twister.
