National Weather Service survey teams confirmed two tornadoes touched down in North Texas on Sunday after severe storms tore through the region Saturday night, leaving one person dead in Runaway Bay and dozens of homes damaged in Wise County.
An EF-2 tornado hit Wise County during the storm, producing peak winds of 135 miles per hour, while an EF-1 tornado was confirmed in Parker County with peak winds around 105 miles per hour. At least one person was killed in Runaway Bay after what appeared to be a tornado struck the town on the banks of Lake Bridgeport, and at least six other people were injured. Twenty families were displaced there, and the damage was significant in an area about 50 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
The storm entered the western portion of Wise County around 10 p.m. on Saturday, and by Sunday morning dozens of homes had sustained major damage. In Parker County, a 69-year-old woman was found dead in the debris of a mobile home, though her identity was still being withheld pending formal identification and notification of kin by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.
Wise County Judge J.D. Clark said Sunday that his community was carrying the weight of the storm, and he urged residents to stay together through the recovery. Texas Task Force 2 was deployed to help local fire and EMS agencies with organized search and rescue efforts, but access to many victims was hampered by blocked roadways and downed utility lines.
The storm was part of a larger system that swept through North Texas and prompted multiple warnings and damage reports. National Weather Service officials said two survey teams remained in the field on Sunday to assess other possible tornado tracks and additional damage locations across the region. For families in Runaway Bay and Wise County, the next step is not the survey map but the slow work of finding homes, clearing roads and accounting for everyone who is still missing from the wreckage.
