At daybreak on Saturday, a violent tornado ripped through a neighborhood at the southern tip of Texas, wrecking scores of homes and bringing down power lines, and k!lling at least one person.
Tom Hushen, the emergency management coordinator for Cameron County, stated that at least ten other people were hospitalized, including two who were listed in critical condition. Quite a few locals were physically injured as well.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevio Jr. has set a nightly curfew for anyone under the age of 17 until May 16 in order to “mitigate the effects of this public health and safety emergency.” In addition, the injunction prevents anybody who isn’t a resident of Laguna Heights from entering the neighborhoods there.
Most residents of Laguna Heights, an unincorporated community on the peninsula opposite South Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico, were asleep when the tornado struck at around 4 a.m. The poverty rate in this county is one of the highest in Texas, and it is littered with rundown neighborhoods.
There had been no prior warning. Instead, according to Barry Goldsmith, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Brownsville, the initial warning of a tornado “went out at the same time it was touching ground.”
“With hurricanes we have the benefit of getting some advance warning; we know it’s probably on its way,” Treviño said during a Saturday press conference. “With a tornado, like Barry mentioned, it’s not a common scenario unless we have a hurricane/tropical cyclone in the area. So, we didn’t have the benefit of a warning.”
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“The hour didn’t help,” Trevio said. Roberto Flores, 42, “basically crushed as a result of the damage to his mobile home,” Trevio added. The National Weather Service classified the storm as an EF1 tornado due to its high wind speeds (86–110 miles per hour). It lasted for barely a few minutes, yet it caused a lot of d@mage.
Up to sixty dwellings may have been affected. The county judge declared a disaster area, and a temporary shelter in Port Isabel helped 38 individuals. “Apparently it went straight through that community,” said county sheriff Eric Garza.
The news has been confirmed by the tweets below:
“Individuals don’t want to leave their houses because they’re afraid that somebody will go in there and start stealing stuff.” Garza has stated that his division is assisting with security in the region.
Angelica Soria, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that although this spring has been busy, tornados are not common in Laguna Heights, which is located about 20 miles northeast of the US-Mexico border at Brownsville.
Preparations are also being made for the arrival of storm season in the region. The Texas tornado follows scores of twisters that inflicted damage but no de@hs in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.
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