Search for victims ends after deadly tornadoes

EAGLE PASS, Texas - All residents were accounted for Wednesday after crews scoured the mangled remains of houses and trailer homes in the wake of tornadoes that killed at least 10 people in this border community and its Mexican neighbor. The storm killed two other people in Louisiana and Arkansas.

Twisters cut across a nearly 4-square-mile area in a rural community southeast of Eagle Pass on Tuesday night, destroying two empty elementary schools, a church, business and homes. Several mobile homes were still missing as searchers with dogs went lot to lot.

Maverick County Judge Jose Aranda said that all residents were accounted for, but that 50 to 200 families were left homeless.

A family of five — a girl, her parents and two other relatives — was killed when the winds blew their mobile home across the street and slammed it into Rosita Valley Elementary School.

“It was a whole family, and they were all together, probably like they were huddling,” said police Officer Ezekiel Navjas, who arrived Tuesday night just as crews were pulling from the wreckage the body of the girl, believed to be about 5 years old.

“I’ve never seen nothing like this,” he said, shaking his head as he walked down a dirt road lined with homes cut in half like doll houses and mesquite treetops torn from their trunks.

One of the dead was found in a house, and the other died after being taken to a San Antonio hospital, authorities said. More than 80 others were injured, and at least four remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Across the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, three people were killed and 300 homes were damaged. About 1,000 people sought refuge in shelters in Piedras Negras, where 32 people were killed by a tornado three years ago.

No warning system in town
Neither Eagle Pass nor Piedras Negras had a siren warning system like those used to help people evacuate ahead of the same storm when it flooded streets and peeled roofs off homes in North Texas. No injuries were reported there.

Lightning was blamed for a 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.

NBC video On the ground April 25: A violent tornado Kills at least 6 and injures about 40 near the Texas-Mexico border. WOAI's Leila Walsh reports. Today show

A 12th person died in Arkansas when high winds swamped a boat on a lake, officials said.

The sprawling front 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.

About 350 residents from Eagle Pass were in shelters and were kept from their homes until rescuers completed their search of the area. Search teams made up of police, firefighters, Border Patrol agents and National Guard soldiers picked their way through homes, knocking on doors, calling out to residents and marking searched buildings with spray paint.

‘Stunning ... devastation’
Gov. Rick Perry arrived for a tour in the late afternoon, saying he was pleased with officials’ response. The state has asked the federal government for quick assistance and a disaster declaration, which would entitle it to federal aid.

“It is stunning, the devastation,” he said.

Eagle Pass resident Ricardo Tijerina, who rode out the twisters with his six children in a house near the school, said he saw the weather roll in and expected a typical spring storm.

“I saw some clouds, but I never imagined it was going to be that bad,” said Tijerina, whose children, ages 5 to 15, crowded under their beds while he watched a neighbor’s trailer roll off its foundation.

The tornado hit near Eagle Pass around 7 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. There were reports of another funnel cloud in Piedras Negras later that night, but it was unclear when or if it touched down.

Tijerina and another neighbor went out in the wind to make sure everyone in the neighbor’s trailer was OK, but the family, with seven children, was not home, he said.

Print this Email this Blog this  IM this

MORE FROM WEATHER

Weather Section Front

French aid ship awaits Myanmar OK Los Angeles unveils drought plan Dry Barcelona forced to ship in water Storms hit soggy Louisiana, camper killed Firefighters get upper hand on Fla. wildfire Weather Section Front   Add Weather headlines to your news reader: