DALLAS — Severe storms swept across North Texas Friday afternoon, prompting numerous tornado warnings in multiple counties.
WFAA was sent videos of two confirmed tornados and has gathered numerous photos of damage caused by the storms that spawned in our area. In Abbott, fire officials sent WFAA photos of overturned semi-trucks on the highway.
Hail also impacted North Texas, some as big as a quarter size.
Here is a look at some of the damage suffered Friday afternoon:
PHOTOS: Hail, damage photos from severe storms that moved across North Texas on April 26, 2024
WFAA's Scoop Jefferson reported on damage in Navarro County:
Just outside of the town of Kaufman, sheriff's deputies waved drivers away from a road over a creek that broke its banks, which surrounded one home and submerged a car in floodwater.
At the BlueBird RV Park and Campground in Myrtle Springs, water turned the driveway into a floodway.
"It happened all fast," said Kari Alvarex. "We didn’t even know it was raining that hard until just now we looked outside -- oh my goodness!"
The water swept away her dumpster, she said, depositing it 15 or 20 yards downstream.
The storm also left damage in Navarro County.
The National Weather Service conducted preliminary damage surveys in McLennan, Hill, and Navarro counties following the severe storms that moved through the region. Three separate tornadoes were found in Navarro County, according to the National Weather Service: Two EF-1 tornadoes with a maximum wind speed of 110 mph beginning near Navarro Mills Lake and tracking northeast towards Emhouse, and one brief EF-0 tornado northwest of Frost with a maximum wind speed of 80 mph.
Additional tornadoes were found in McLennan and Hill Counties, with a brief EF-0 and additional EF-1 tornado near China Springs. An EF-2 tornado was found east of West near the McLennan-Hill County line.
An early weather warning there kept Annette Chandler and her family out of harm's way. After the storm, they found their home leveled and almost everything destroyed.
They've salvaged what they can including food from their refrigerator.
"We left home 15 minutes before the storm because we knew it was coming," said Annette Chandler.
Her son drove more than an hour to their Frost home to help with the recovery. He was concerned, and rightfully so. The only thing left intact at the house was the wooden front porch. The Chandler's home appeared to be the worst in the neighborhood.
Stephanie Brown said she grabbed her daughter and left home as well.
Next-door neighbor Stephanie Brown also knew ahead of time that bad weather was coming. She went to a nearby ditch for safety. Stephanie has lived on and off in Frost for the past 30 years. She says she's never seen anything like Friday's storm hit their area.
"We got the national alert on the phone, it said a tornado warning for the area," said Stephanie Brown, "The neighbor's shed is in our yard now. We have a fence that is kind of leaning. The RV got shifted a foot and our batting cage is down."
Stephanie says the path of the storm is easy to follow. It left a trampoline Brushie Prairie on a utility pole. The owner of a sport boat and trailer found it flipped upside down on County Road 22. The storm forced this silo in Frost to the ground.
Sheriff Elmer Tanner is a longstanding member of the Navarro County Sheriff's Department with more than 33 years of experience. Right after the weather eased up, Tanner hit the streets going from city to city.
"I have been going from home to home to check on people," said Tanner, "So far I have not heard of any injuries from the storm.
Carl Edmison and his family made it through the storm unharmed. Early warnings helped Edmison and his family stay safe. Edmison showed us their safe room.
It's inside their master bedroom closet, reinforced to withstand the severe weather outside.
"You really got to be weather aware," Edmison said. "The leaves and debris were blowing that way, this side of the house they were going this way, and the back side of the house they were literally swirling."
Now as storm victims try to recover from what they've lost, they are grateful to be alive.
"Anything is replaceable, except your life," Brown said.
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