JOHNSON COUNTY — All the barn metal, house roofs and broken limbs scattered by tornadoes are pieces of a puzzle now.
Meteorologists spent Monday near the Johnson County community of Rio Vista piecing the puzzle together. They confirmed a total of eight EF-0 tornadoes hit near the Rio Vista area and near Glen Rose in Somervell County.
"I think we dodged a bullet here," said National Weather Service forecaster Mark Fox. "This was a big storm that stayed here a long time."
Fox is the warning and coordination meteorologist with NWS, which means he's also a detective once storms pass through.
"Seeing a lot of evidence of tornado damage consistent with EF-0," he said as he stood next to a pile of wadded-up metal barn siding. "Eighty to 85 mph winds, still enough to do a heck of a lot of damage like this behind us."
"This is my barn," said Billy Grantham, standing near the damaged structure that had been home to his horses. "Everybody good."
But he did lose some chickens.
Grantham's barn blew one way and trees on the other side of his house went the other. It's evidence that a small tornado churned right over his head. It did only slight damage to his brick home.
However, a drive around part of Johnson County, and the sight of destruction makes it a wonder there were no reported serious injuries. There was plenty of damage serious enough to hurt or kill anyone who had been in the wrong place.
County Road 916 got washed out by flash flooding. Texas Department of Transportation workers responded to fix it, and the road was expected to reopen sometime Monday night.
Fox said he isn't surprised that at least four twisters touched down.
"In 2011, on April 26, we had a lot of these tornadoes as well," he said.
