Severe storm brings tornadoes to Texas; snow, ice and flooding across Midwest

Outside of Dallas, Texas, officials were in the early stages of a massive recovery effort after nine tornadoes touched down in the area on Saturday. The service has issued tornado watches and warnings for areas in that state, as well as in parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Tornados knocked cars off a highway and flattened homes in Texas, raising the death toll to 25 as a string of powerful storms wreaked havoc across much of the southern United States.

At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in apparently strong tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area and caused substantial damage this weekend, while five people died in a flash flood in IL.

Three people also died in Collin County, northeast of Dallas.

“It is total devastation”, said Garland Police spokesman Lieutenant Pedro Barineau said. The weather service said damage indicated it was likely an EF-3 tornado, which has winds up to 165 miles per hour (265 kph).

“I don’t declare local disasters lightly”, Jenkins said.

Officials in Collin County confirmed three deaths, two of them at a Copeville gas station that was destroyed in the storms.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, say a tornado has been reported in northwest Florida. The combination of rain-filled clouds and plummeting temperatures meant a “life-threatening and crippling blizzard” was headed toward the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, the weather service said. According to CNN, Dallas had a high of 82 degrees Saturday. The Southeast saw better weather, and temperatures in the eastern third of the country were expected to be near record highs.

Parts of New Mexico, where a state-wide emergency has been declared, are expecting up to 2ft (60cm) of snow. An estimated 600 buildings were damaged, majority single-family homes, and 15 others suffered injuries, according to the city.

Snow will eventually work its way down to Dallas, blanketing and freezing over communities in the middle of tornado clean-up.

“We’re still very concerned about eastern New Mexico, western Texas, streaming up into the Panhandle”, said Danielle Banks, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. “I can’t believe the road was left in this condition”.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency Sunday, saying 16 inches of snow had already fallen in some parts of the state, making roads impassable.

In far West Texas, up to four inches of snow fell overnight in the Alpine area, with foot-deep drifts reported.

Crews are treating the state’s highways and bridges with salt and sand in preparation for extreme weather.

According to tracking service FlightAware.com, more than 1,100 flights were canceled nationwide on Sunday, about half of which were scheduled to or from Dallas, a major USA transit hub.

In Alabama’s Coffee County, the body of a man who went missing during those storms was found on Sunday, officials told local media. Tornado Warnings started being issued Saturday afternoon and continued into the night.

That, plus the flooding in Missouri and IL, was the latest in a succession of severe weather events across the country in the last week that led to at least 43 deaths. With the recent heavy rains, that trickle grew into several feet of swiftly moving water.

At least eight people have died, Nixon’s office said.

In southern IL, authorities said three adults and two children drowned Saturday evening when the vehicle they were riding in was swept away and sank in a rain-swollen creek.

“I urge Missourians in flood-affected areas to stay alert, avoid travel if possible and never drive into a flooded roadway”, he said.

Widespread flash flooding also caused problems in Arkansas. Flights were temporarily halted from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.