RUNAWAY BAY, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A tornado-producing thunderstorm left at least two people dead in northern Texas and displaced at least 20 families, with many homes sustaining major damage, authorities said Sunday.<\/p>\n
Emergency responders worked through Saturday night and into Sunday in the town of Runaway Bay to clear debris in order to reach damaged homes and provide medical care where needed, Wise County Judge J.D. Clark, who serves as the county\u2019s chief executive, said at a news conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cAccess has been difficult due to blocked roadways and downed utilities, but crews have continued pushing forward to reach those in need,\u201d Clark said. \u201cRoads in the affected area will remain closed by law enforcement to ensure safety and allow emergency crews to manage the scene without obstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The storm also hit Springtown, where Parker County Assistant Fire Chief David Pruitt said in an email that a second person died south of the city limits. There was \u201csignificant damage\u201d in the area, Pruitt said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most significant ongoing challenges is the widespread power outage affecting many residents,\u201d he wrote. \u201cOfficials are coordinating with utility providers and emergency partners as restoration efforts continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
National Weather Service teams confirmed that an EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 135 mph had touched down in the Runaway Bay area. They were still assessing damage in Springtown on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The slow-moving supercell traveled through the area around 10 p.m. Saturday, said meteorologist Patricia Sanchez with the Fort Worth weather service office. <\/p>\n
It moved southeast from around Wichita Falls, near the Oklahoma border, passing just west of Fort Worth. Runaway Bay is about 45 miles northwest of Fort Worth on Lake Bridgeport. Springtown is about 30 miles northwest of Fort Worth. <\/p>\n
Weather service radar picked up a \u201cpotentially large and extremely dangerous\u201d tornado near Azle, about 10 miles southeast of Springtown, at 10:14 p.m. Saturday, officials said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RUNAWAY BAY, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A tornado-producing thunderstorm left at least two people dead in northern Texas and displaced at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33249,35376,24209,116,1510,99768,27409,12520,99769,99767,99766,52304,27,29,28,12363,24070],"class_list":{"0":"post-267458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-affected-area","9":"tag-authority","10":"tag-crew","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-home","13":"tag-major-damage","14":"tag-mile","15":"tag-official","16":"tag-p-m-saturday","17":"tag-runaway-bay","18":"tag-springtown","19":"tag-sunday","20":"tag-texas","21":"tag-texas-headlines","22":"tag-texas-news","23":"tag-tornado","24":"tag-utility"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}