Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 News/ AP) ― The National Weather Service is fairly certain it was a small tornado that hit east Dallas Friday evening.

The storm hit an apartment complex on Buckner Boulevard. No one was hurt.

Starting Tuesday, the city will begin collecting debris that fell on private property.

People in a four-block area near the apartments, around Peavy and Gross Roads, should put the trash curbside.

That tornado is the fourth the National Weather service has confirmed. The others were in the Haltom City area, Benbrook and Rockwall.

The Haltom City tornado was classified as having had EF-1 strength winds. The Benbrook and Rockwall tornadoes had not been classified as of Saturday evening.

Weather officials confirmed the Haltom City twister after surveying damage across North Texas that brought high winds, heavy rains, and hail.

The wet, hazardous conditions from Friday's severe storms claimed the lives of two people - one an Irving police officer.

Officer Andrew Esparza was on his way to back up a colleague at a minor accident just before 9 p.m. Friday evening, when investigators believe he lost control of his squad car in the heavy rainfall and slid off the right shoulder of Highway 183. The officers' car struck a concrete light pole just east of O'Connor.

Officer Esparza's car was the only vehicle involved. "The accident itself is going to be rather difficult to investigate," Irving police spokesman David Tull said. "There were no independent witnesses to it. ... We actually had citizens that called us and said we had a squad car on the side of the road wrecked, and the officer was not moving." and other motorists actually phoned police to report the crash.

Officer Esparza had been with the department for just two years but, according to Irving Police Department Spokesperson David Tull, "…was a young officer who had already shown great promise."

Funeral arrangements for Officer Esparza are pending.

The second fatality from storms that rolled across North Texas happened in Haltom City, where Marc Patterson was killed. The 40-year-old man died after a pile of lumber that he was unloading from his truck fell on top of him when the storm passed through, Fort Worth fire spokesman Lt. Kent Worley said. He was pulled out from beneath the debris but died before paramedics could get him to a hospital.

At least five other people across North Texas were injured in Friday's storms.

Friday's storms dropped heavy rain and in some places hail the size of tennis balls.

A residential neighborhood in Haltom City tucked between Interstate 35 and an industrial park suffered a direct hit. The storm tore roofs off houses and destroyed porches and garages.

Amanda Rymer of Haltom City said she pulled her 2-year-old daughter out of her living room just seconds before the roof caved in above them.

"I felt my house start shaking like the wind and I ran in here and grabbed my little girl," said Rymer, 21. "As soon as I moved her, the roof fell in right where she was standing."

Rymer said she rushed her daughter into a bedroom and pulled a mattress over her. Then she ran back to the living room for her 2-month-old son, who was sitting in a baby swing.

"I didn't know if I was going to come out here and my little boy would be dead or alive or even here," she said.

The roof of a Haltom City Minyard's grocery store was seriously damaged, along with several homes. A Baptist church in that area also maintained major damage.

In east Dallas, the roof of an apartment complex near John West and Buckner sustained damage. The City of Dallas opened a shelter at the Harry Stone Recreation Center for more than a dozen people who were displaced after high winds damaged their condominium complex in East Dallas. The center, located at 2403 Millmar, will serve as a temporary shelter.

Saturday evening fewer than 200 North Texans remained without power.

Air traffic came to a halt at D/FW airport as the storms moved through. Passengers had to be evacuated out of the security side of terminals during the height of the storms. The FAA implemented a ground stop order, prohibiting flights from landing. It was not known how many flights were cancelled.

After Friday's storms, the City of Dallas is reviewing its tornado warning system.

Currently, the city has 94 sirens in operation, which covers about 83 percent of the population of Dallas.

Emergency workers want to update the system and increase the number of sirens to at least 125. City workers say they need to replace some of the older sirens because it's hard to find parts for the system.

(CBS 11 News/ AP)