Arlington Among Cities Hit Hardest By Storms
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ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - Storms ripped through much of North Texas on Thursday afternoon, leaving a trail of damage throughout the DFW area. Arlington was one of the hardest hit cities. Winds of nearly 90 mph blasted homes and businesses.
Scared students took cover as the storm hit the Lillian Morris Hall dormitory at Arlington Baptist College. At least two people were hurt by broken glass as the building's roof was torn off. They are both expected to be okay. A mountain of debris remained on Friday morning including mangled pieces of metal, broken wood and tiny nails. Some of that debris came to a rest on top of cars.
"We see people trying to get out of their rooms, but the air is sucking them stuck in the room," said student Kaylee Hatfield.
"I didn't know what to do," added Cassie Bush. "I didn't know what was going to happen next. I didn't know if the Lord was calling me home."
The woman's dormitory building was closed on Thursday night. Students who remained on campus temporarily moved into the men's dormitory.
This is actually the second time that such an event has happened to Arlington Baptist College. "I was here back around '96, '97," recalled president Danny Moody on Friday. "We had virtually the same thing happen. But, having had that experience, here's what I know. We rebounded then, came back strong, and I believe we'll do so again."
Lasting power outages and storm damage even forced the Arlington Independent School District to close their campuses and offices on Friday. The district said that the fate of afternoon activities will be decided later in the day. Click here to see additional North Texas schools that were forced to close on Friday.
The University of Texas-Arlington and the University of North Texas in Denton also canceled classes on Friday due to lack of power.
Oncor Spokesman Chris Shine Talks About Power Outages
Oncor reported around 178,000 homes and businesses without electricity on Friday morning, mostly in the DFW area. That total is down from the more than 300,000 customers that were without power during the height of Thursday's storms. The American Red Cross is working with families who need places to stay or other assistance.
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