UPDATE: 10 Die As Storms Hit Texas-Mexico Border
Pastor Dale Morgan
UPDATE: 10 Die As Storms Hit Texas-Mexico Border*
Apr 25, 1:02 PM (ET)
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
(AP) Lorenzo Tijerina, 9, right, and his brother, Armondo, 5, look
through the debris of their...
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) - Search teams worked their way through
wreckage-strewn neighborhoods along the Texas-Mexico border Wednesday
after a tornado killed at least 10 people, destroyed 2 schools and
damaged hundreds of homes.
The same storm system was later blamed for a lightning-strike fire that
killed an 11th person in Louisiana and for flooding in the Midwest.
Five of the tornado victims died together when the storm slammed their
mobile home against a school building in Eagle Pass, said Maverick
County Judge Jose Aranda.
"It was a whole family, and they were all together, probably like they
were huddling," said police Officer Ezekiel Navjas. Aranda said a girl
between 4 and 6 years old, her parents and two other adult relatives
were inside.
(AP) A search and rescue team member uses his dog to search through the
debris in an area hit by a...
Just across the Rio Grande, in Piedras Negras, Mexico, three people died
in the storm, said Oscar Murillo, the city's civil protection director.
At least 87 others were injured and 300 homes were damaged. About 1,000
people sought refuge in shelters.
Three years ago, a tornado killed 32 when it hit Piedras Negras.
Several mobile homes were missing Wednesday from Eagle Pass, a community
of about 26,000 residents, officials said, and more than 70 people were
reported injured.
Lightning was blamed for the 11th death Wednesday as the huge weather
system plowed through the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. The bolt started
a fire near Shreveport, La., that killed a 101-year-old man, authorities
and the man's family said.
The severe weather also spun off tornadoes Tuesday in Oklahoma and
Colorado, caused flooding in Iowa and Nebraska and piled snow more than
a foot deep in the Rockies.
(AP) Search and Rescue team members look through debris at a home in
Eagle Pass, Wednesday, April 25,...
The tornado that struck the rural Rosita Valley area outside Eagle Pass
destroyed two schools, City Councilman Ramsey English Cantu said
Wednesday in an interview with AP Radio. Nobody was in the schools,
officials said.
"There was one elementary that was destroyed," he said. "We have behind
that a literacy academy for younger individuals that's like a preschool.
That's not even standing, just completely leveled."
Teams were still assessing the damage Wednesday morning in the border
area about 150 miles south of San Antonio. National Guard units attached
to the Border Patrol were assisting local agencies in their door-to-door
search and rescue efforts, Fire Chief Rogelio de la Cruz said.
"It's the worst I've seen," said Ricardo Tijerina, 38, who rode out the
storm in a house near the school with his six children. He said he
watched the storm destroy a mobile home across the street, but all of
that home's residents survived.
More than 350 people were in shelters Wednesday morning, Cantu said. "Of
course, some also may be staying with relatives. It's just a very, very
catastrophic event that has come into this community."
(AP) A funnel cloud hangs from a bank of clouds near Wild Horse, Colo.,
on Tuesday, April 24, 2007. A...
Officials said 76 people were taken to Fort Duncan Medical Center, the
city's only hospital. Four were transferred to hospitals in San Antonio
and Del Rio in critical condition.
"The hospital in the early stages was being overrun, but they had called
in additional doctors and were able to take care of business," Eagle
Pass Mayor Chad Foster said.
Severe thunderstorms also battered other parts of Texas with high wind,
flooding rain and hail.
American Airlines canceled about 200 flights in Dallas, spokesman Billy
Sanez said. The airline also diverted about 80 flights bound for
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to other airports, including San
Antonio.
Elsewhere, as much as 3.5 inches of rain fell Tuesday on western and
central Iowa, washing out roads, flooding basements and causing at least
one landslide that buried part of Interstate 29 in Sioux City in trees
and mud. No vehicles were driving through the spot when the mudslide
happened, officials said.
More than 5 inches of rain fell at Holdrege and Kearney, Neb. "We've got
full ditches, water over the roads in some cities, urban areas," said
meteorologist Cindy Fay at the National Weather Service office in Hastings.
In Colorado, six buses carrying at least 60 children were stranded when
the storm dropped more than a foot of snow in about two hours, said Rob
Finley, assistant fire marshal for El Paso County. The children were
taken to shelters in the county about 80 miles south of Denver.
Crews used Sno-Cats to rescue dozens of motorists from snow-covered
roads on the plains east of Colorado Springs, said Lt. Clif Northam of
the El Paso County sheriff's office. Evergreen, Colo., in the foothills
west of Denver, reported more than 2 feet of snow.
A tornado damaged several buildings near the small town of Wild Horse
about 110 miles southeast of Denver, but no injuries were reported, the
Cheyenne County Sheriff's Department said. Another twister touched down
in north-central Oklahoma but no damages or injuries were reported.
---
Associated Press writers Matt Joyce and Terry Wallace in Dallas
contributed to this report.