There were no immediate reports of serious injuries. After strong winds damaged commercial buildings. Homes and power lines in Pasadena, a city southeast of Houston.
PASADENA, Texas – A powerful storm system took aim at the Gulf Coast on Tuesday. Spawning a tornado that snapped utility poles and power lines, overturned vehicles. And tore roofs from homes and businesses in communities east of Houston. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency. For the area, warning that a “large. extremely dangerous. And potentially fatal tornado” was on the ground Tuesday afternoon. And headed toward Baytown, about 25 miles east of Houston. The warning expired as the system moved east, leaving cooler temperatures.
Strong winds damaged commercial buildings, homes. And power lines in Pasadena, a city southeast of Houston. Utility poles and power lines were down and several vehicles.
Footage from Houston TV station KTRK showed several businesses. In the city suffering major damage. Including an animal shelter. But there were no immediate reports of injuries. The American Red Cross said it is opening a shelter in Pasadena.
In Baytown, power lines were down and homes and businesses were damaged. But there were no reports of serious injuries, Baytown spokesman Jason Calder said.
Officials in nearby Deer Park said the tornado severely damaged a nursing home. Residents had to be evacuated, but no one was injured.
As emergency crews worked to restore power. Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. urged anyone in need of a place to stay to look outside his city.
“There’s a side of me that’s surprised nobody got hurt,” Mouton said. “We will deal with the property and restore and rebuild.”
Many suburbs in the area have a heavy presence of petrochemical industrial sites.
According to Shell spokesman Curtis Smith, the Shell Chemicals. Location in Deer Park was burning or burning natural gas after severe weather caused a loss of steam.
There is no threat to the community, nor any sign of a nearby tornado touching down at the chemical facility.”
The website PowerOutage.us. Which collects live power outage data from utilities across the United States. Reported that about 67,000 customers in Texas were without power Tuesday night. Mostly in the Houston area and surrounding counties. The site reported about 28,000 outages in neighboring Arkansas and about 25,000 in Louisiana.
The storm system was bringing snow and ice to much of the central United States.
Schools and businesses were closed across Oklahoma on Tuesday. Which saw 1 to 6 inches of snow in central and eastern parts of the state. Several school districts in southwest Louisiana dismissed. Students early Tuesday in anticipation of severe weather in the area.
