Gusty winds leave trail of damage across North Texas
DALLAS - Clean up across North Texas begins after Wednesday morning’s severe weather and wind gusts that reached up to 80 miles an hour.
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued for several counties as storms moved through the Metroplex during the morning hours, but most of the severe weather had moved east of the Metroplex by 7 a.m.
One Arlington mother said one of her daughters was cut by glass after she had one of her windows smashed by the high winds.
“I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do, because she’s screaming and blood is coming down her arm,” said Gwendolyn Smith. “I didn’t know what happened because it just happened so, so fast. I was just shocked.”
A tree that was uprooted during the storms caused significant damage to two homes in South Dallas in the 2600 block of Tanner Street.
William Blaine says he was woken up early in the morning by a loud bang coming from his back yard. He went to investigate and found his entire kitchen had collapsed under the weight of the tree.
"I came out the front door and I looked. That’s when I saw the tree on my house,” he recalled. “I didn’t really pay attention to my neighbor’s house until it got a little bit lighter. That’s when I realized her house was in worse shape than mine."
Blaine says his house can be repaired, but his neighbor says her home is unlivable.
The storms also rocked the city of Everman just south of Fort Worth. There were fallen fences, ripped up roofs and downed tree limbs across the city.
Everman PD says they started getting calls around 4:30 a.m. and recorded wind speeds of up to 81 miles an hour. They had no reports of injuries there.
Crews were able to clean up the debris to the get the Grand Prairie airport operational within a few hours, but full repairs on the hangars and the planes could take months.
Antwion McCoy got to work a little before 5 a.m. when strong winds started whipping through and ripped off the roof of the building where he works near the airport.
“I saw the front part just raveled up and made its way to the side,” he recalled. “It shocked me because I didn’t know what was gonna be next.”
McCoy hunkered down in his truck, which was rocking back and forth, and hoped for the best.
“I thought my truck was actually gonna take flight with it,” he said. “So I put the seatbelt on because I didn’t want to be thrown around in the truck.”
Scattered pieces of the roof ended up in the nearby airfield of the Grand Prairie Municipal Airport, where 67 aircraft and 13 hangars were damaged.
“Mainly, the tied down aircraft got flipped and crushed,” explained Mark Divita, the airport director. “Then, a lot of hangar doors were removed. Some fell out, and some fell in on aircraft.”
Many of the damaged planes were from the same flight school, which lost most of its fleet.
“You never want to see it. It’s as bad as looking at an aircraft accident,” Divita said. “They’re supposed to be in the sky flying, having fun and not crumpled on the ground.”
Residents at a nearby RV park reported strong winds violently rocking their homes.
“Well the wind comes, and I literally have to grab onto the wall,” recalled resident Iesha Howard. “And we’re holding on thinking we’re gonna flip over.”
Surprisingly, their homes stayed upright through the storm and received minimal damage. They’re thankful no one was hurt.
“I was really scared. I didn’t know what to do,” Howard said. “There’s not really much you can do when it’s too late. All you can do is pray and hope everything turns out good and we’re still here.”
Airport officials say they’re still assessing the damage, so it’s unclear if any of the damaged aircraft can be salvaged. There were no reported injuries there.
Strong winds also damaged an Amazon facility near DFW Airport, with part of the warehouse roof coming off during Wednesday's storms.
Marcus Hawthorne was in his truck recording the storm when part of the warehouse roof landed near him. No one was hurt, but several cars were damaged.
There was some damage in DFW Airport parking lots and to some of the jet bridges at terminals B and D.