Tornado kills 3 in Texas and injures dozens

A storm system that swept through Texas Thursday night killed three people and injured dozens more, an official said, as the state braced for a weekend of brutal heat.

The three dead and more than 75 injured were in Perryton, a town where a mobile home park took a direct hit from a tornado, local fire chief Paul Dutcher said. NBC news. He told CNN that one person died in the trailer park and two others died in the center, and one person was missing. About 200 homes and the city’s fire station were destroyed, and infrared-equipped drones surveyed the damage, he said.

Officials in Perryton, about 115 miles northeast of Amarillo in the Panhandle state, could not immediately be reached for comment.

About 50 to 75 patients were being treated at Ochiltree General Hospital in the city, Kelly Judice, the hospital’s administrator, said by phone. Their injuries ranged from cuts to trauma, she added, and 10 patients with life-threatening injuries were sent to larger facilities in Amarillo.

Videos and photos posted on social media from the area by a CBS News journalist appeared to show flattened buildings, flooding and damaged vehicles. The National Weather Service said a tornado was confirmed north of Perryton.

Tornado warnings were in effect Thursday night for three counties in Oklahoma and Texas, and 10 counties in Texas were under a tornado watchsaid the National Weather Service.

The tornado that struck Perryton was part of a larger storm system that moved through the area. The heat contributed to the storm by destabilizing the atmosphere, said Trent Hoffeditz, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Amarillo.

More than 67,000 Texas homes were without power late Thursday night, especially in the Northeast. according to the site poweroutage.us. Millions more across the state are bracing for widespread heat that officials say will last for days and increase the risk of wildfires and heat-related illness.

Some daily temperature records may fall in Texas and Louisiana, including in Houston and New Orleans, the weather service said. On Thursday evening, heat advice was in effect more than 25 million Americans, mostly in Texas. More than 10 million others, mostly in Louisiana, were under extreme heat surveillance. Some advisories and watches would remain in effect through Saturday evening.

Meteorologists describe heat waves using a heat index, which measures both temperature and humidity measure how warm it feels outside. A heat advisory usually states that the maximum index temperature is expected to be 100 degrees or higher for at least two days. An excessive heat watch usually means the index could rise to 105 degrees or more.

Parts of Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, were expected to see heat index readings of 105 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday or Saturday, the Weather Service said. said in an opinion. An index of up to 119 degrees was possible in some southern countries.

Weather this hot can pose health risks to people who spend extended periods outdoors or without air conditioning. Throughout Texas, the Salvation Army has opened several cooling stations where people can escape the punishing heat.

It’s not uncommon for Texas officials to issue heat advisories around this time of year, said Monte Oaks, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s San Antonio office. They usually do this when high temperatures combine with other factors, including high humidity and westerly winds that blow hot air from high-altitude deserts, he added.

In this case, Mr. Oaks said, the humidity is high because Texas had a wetter and stormier spring than usual. As a result, parts of the state look more lush than usual in June, he said. But it also means that the hot soil is “cooking much of the moisture” and releasing it to the air.

Electricity demand in the state is expected to pick up later this week because of the warm weather, Texas’ Electric Reliability Council, which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electricity load, said in a statement Wednesday. But there is enough supply to meet demand, the company added, and it does not expect an “energy crisis”.

Global warming is making dangerously hot weather more common and more extreme on every continent. Texas and neighboring Mexico are at least five times more likely to experience extreme heat in the coming days. according to an analysis on Wednesday by Climate Central, a nonprofit research collaboration of scientists and journalists.

In the Perryton area, the Texas Department of Public Safety was assisting with traffic control and other needs Thursday, Cindy Barkley, a spokeswoman for the department, said by phone. The Ochiltree County Sheriff’s Office said it could not provide information on the extent of the damage and whether anyone was injured.

Barry Nusz, a storm chaser from Amarillo, Texas, said he was about 10 miles east of Perryton when the tornado approached.

“It became clear that it was going to be a tornado and it just turned from a bowl into a big tornado that planted itself on the ground,” said Mr. Nusz.

“But it soon wrapped in the rain,” he added. “We’ve lost track of it.”

Jesus Jimenez reporting contributed.