By Biodun Busari
No fewer than three people were feared dead while dozens got injured as a tornado ripped through the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton on Thursday.
The natural hazard also caused widespread damage in a series of fierce storms that carved its way through Southern states, the local media said.
The National Weather Service in Amarillo confirmed that a tornado hit the area Thursday afternoon, but there was no immediate word on its size or wind speeds, meteorologist Luigi Meccariello said.
Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher while briefing reporters said at least one person was killed in a mobile home park that took a “direct hit” from a tornado.
Dutcher also revealed that at least 30 trailers were damaged or destroyed and as of six in the evening, firefighters were at the location to rescue people from the rubble.
First responders from surrounding areas and from Oklahoma descended on the town, which is home to more than 8,000 people and about 115 miles (185 kilometres) northeast of Amarillo, just south of the Oklahoma line.
Storm chaser Brian Emfinger told Fox Weather that he watched the twister move through a mobile home park, mangling trailers and uprooting trees.
“I had seen the tornado do some pretty serious destruction to the industrial part of town,” he said. “Unfortunately, just west of there, there is just mobile home, after mobile home, after mobile home that is completely destroyed. There is significant damage.”
Nearly 50,000 customers were without electricity in Texas and Oklahoma, according to the poweroutage.us website.
