POWELL, Texas — A train derailed in Navarro County on Wednesday during a round of severe storms in the North Texas area.
The Navarro County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) said the derailment happened in the town of Powell, about nine miles east of Corsicana, on Wednesday evening. The location is at Highway 31 and SE County Road 0080.
Union Pacific said the incident involved one of its trains and that about 26 rail cars derailed at the scene.
While officials are still determining the cause of the derailment, the incident was called in during severe storms that the OEM reported as having up to 80 mph winds.
The train involved was a freight train with double-stack containers.
There were no injuries reported from the incident, and the OEM said there is no environmental hazard.
“Got very little warning from the national weather service," Navarro County assistant emergency management coordinator Darrell Cobb said. "Typically, we get a pretty advanced warning and this one kind of got on us in a hurry."
Across the county, trees damaged homes and power lines -- leaving many in the heat and the dark.
Bill Riley counted a dozen downed trees in his yard in northern Corsicana. One collapsed on his home, but he's not sure of the damage it caused.
“My wife had already told me you need to come home because you’re not going to believe what you find when you get here," Riley said. “This tree is at least four foot around and it just snapped the top right out of it.”
Cobb said despite the damage, no one was hurt. Their biggest issue is getting an accounting of the damage for state assistance.
“Most people are just handling it. That’s just the way people are in Navarro County," Cobb said. “I’ve had a lot of people tell me they can’t remember seeing straight-line winds that hard that have been here for a good while.”