Tornado Causes Widespread Damage in Texas Panhandle Town
and Midwest. A tornado ripped through Perryton, Texas on Thursday, causing widespread damage.
PERRYTON (Texas) (AP). A tornado ripped across the Texas Panhandle city of Perryton, causing extensive damage, as another fierce storm carved its path through the South.
The National Weather Service confirmed that there was a tornado in the Amarillo area on Thursday afternoon. Meteorologist Luigi Meccariello did not know the size of the tornado or if anyone was hurt.
He said that 'there are still reports about ongoing rescues', but he didn't know any specifics.
First responders and first-responders from Oklahoma and the surrounding area descended upon the town.
Brian Emfinger, a storm chaser for Fox Weather, said that he saw the twister rip through a mobile-home park, destroying trailers and uprooting tree branches.
He said, 'I saw the tornado cause some serious damage to the industrial area of the town.' "Unfortunately, west of that, you can see mobile home after mobile house after mobile house, all completely destroyed. There are significant damages.
According to the website poweroutage.us, nearly 50,000 customers in Texas and Oklahoma were without electricity.
By evening, a weather front had moved southeastward across Oklahoma. The weather service reported that a second storm system would continue to move across Oklahoma and parts of Texas into the evening, while severe weather including tornadoes remained a risk for the metro area of Oklahoma City.