Weather

Here's What's Hot On CBS11TV.com:

In To Be Out: Gay Celebrities More

DFW AA Flight Continues Despite Damage 10 Smartest & Dumbest Dog Breeds Krazy Texas Laws Shots Fired Near CBS 11 Reporter While ...

• May 2, 2008 4:12 pm US/Central
• Digg | Facebook | E-mail

  Close WindowE-mail This Page

  NWS: Confirmed Tornado Touched Down In Canton

  Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

  ---

  • Recipient E-mail:* 
  • • Your Name:* 
    • Your E-mail:* 
  • Add a Message:
  •   Send me a copy of this e-mail.

  • Type the characters in this picture:* Click here to refresh with new letters

  ---

  The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

  Send E-mail

  | Print

NWS: Confirmed Tornado Touched Down In Canton

Reporting
Bud Gillett

Fast-moving storms flashed through East Texas on Friday, spawning at least one tornado that touched down in three small towns, causing minor injuries and damage.

Gary Woodall from the National Weather Service in Fort Worth was in Canton Friday afternoon and confirmed that a tornado touched down there.

The high winds uprooted trees, flipped cars and yanked down power lines as they skipped across Van Zandt, Smith, Rusk and Panola counties.

"When it hit, it hit. And when it left, it was just that quick," said Rusk County Sheriff's Lt. Kenneth Logan.

The rain and wind accompanied a line of thunderstorms that blew in with a cold front, said Nick Hampshire, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth.

Witnesses said powerful winds blew through a popular open-air market in Canton around 8:15 a.m., toppling tents and snapping power lines. The market, which draws thousands to the Van Zandt County seat at the beginning of each month, was back in business soon after.

A van at First Monday Trade Days Flea Market was one of the casualties of the storm. The vehicle actually shielded another close by van, where three people were drinking coffee when both a tree and a power pole fell on them. The first van blocked the tree forming an arch that saved the people.

Buddy Holdren was one of the coffee sippers in the van. "It was just tremendous rain and wind, not a roar like people say they heard a freight train or something," he said. "And all of a sudden the trees and telephone poll they were like collapsed on the van. Quick as a flash it was gone. Didn't have time to get scared."

The tornado is believed to have touched down at least twice in Canton. Witnesses say the twister didn't stay on the ground, but skipped up and down.

One driver on Interstate-20 was hospitalized as a precaution, after his car was blown off the road. According to Canton's mayor two people also had heart attacks; it's not clear whether they were storm related.

"What I saw right by the road was eye-opening," said Patti Milliorn, an administrative assistant for the Van Zandt County sheriff's office. "There were several small trees twisted off, someone's tarp or tent was twisted and mangled, and a car was on its side."

In Panola County, a sheriff's dispatcher said funnel clouds were spotted near Beckville shortly after noon, but the department had not received any injury calls.

Keith Stellman, warning-coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, La., said a firefighter near Henderson called in a report of a twister in the East Texas city, but that the report had not been confirmed.

Logan, the Rusk County sheriff's officer, said his department had not received reports of injuries but there was a wide range of property damage, including one house with windows blown out north of Henderson.

"They're all the same line of storms," said Gary Chatelain, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Shreveport. "Decades ago this would be one storm, now it goes a certain distance and they reclassify it as another storm."

(CBS 11 News/AP)