Remaining Missing Van Tornado Victims Found Alive
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VAN ZANDT COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - Two people have been confirmed dead after a tornado hit the town of Van, just east of Dallas. Monday night emergency officials confirmed everyone else who was missing is now accounted for and alive.
The City of Van and areas surrounding were the hardest hit by Sunday night's storms. Mark Fox, with the National Weather Service, confirmed an EF-3 strength tornado touched down. "The EF-3 rating was based on about two houses," he said. "And the EF-3 starts at about 136 miles per hour. We estimate the top winds here to be 135 to 140 miles per hour." Fox said the tornado first touched down about a mile south of Interstate-20 and made its way up.
Officials said disaster declarations for the city of Van and Van Zandt County have been sent to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Fire Marshal Allen said, "Approximately 30-percent of the City of Van has suffered damaged, ranging from completely destroyed homes to downed trees and power lines. We're easily looking at 50 to 100 homes here in the city that have been damaged or destroyed."
Late Monday afternoon Governor Abbott declared a state of disaster in Bosque, Clay, Denton, Eastland, Gaines, Montague and Van Zandt counties and said additional counties may be added to the list. THe declaration authorizes "further mobilization of state resources to assist impacted communities."
The two fatalities in Van occurred on South Bois D'Arc Street, near a mobile home park. The victims were husband and wife.
In all, more than 40 people were taken to area hospitals by ambulance and Fire Marshal Allen said many more were taken by private vehicle.
Sunrise shed light on devastation up and down the streets of van. Entire homes were flattened or ripped apart at the roof and walls. An orange "X" on the steps means people who live at a location are accounted for - even if their home is not. Allen said, "We do have multiple fire departments, law enforcement agencies, Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens, with search K-9s, going door-to-door in the neighborhoods that have been affected to see if they can identify any of the missing."
Right now first responders say one of the biggest problems is dealing with members of the public coming to the town "sightseeing." Fire Marshal Allen stressed that it is very important, for safety and repair reasons, that people stay out of the area. "As power lines are re-energized, transformers are put back up, we are susceptible to some fires. We have suffered a large water main break in the affected area, which will highly limit our ability to extinguish any fires that do get started."
The Red Cross has established a shelter at the First Baptist Church in Van and as of Monday morning some 50 people have registered.
Crews from Oncor and Atmos Energy are working to restore power and gas service. As of Monday afternoon there were still some 550 people in the area without power. The key to making the area safe and getting people back into their homes depends on getting power poles back up and transformers running again. Fire Marshal Allen said emergency crews are hoping to allow residents back in to the area sometime Tuesday.
Because there are still people unaccounted for Van Zandt County has requested assistance from Texas Task Force One, stationed out of College Station, to help with search and recovery. Fire Marshal Allen explained, "I wanted to make sure myself, by bringing in another asset -- another set of eyes, to 100-percent say that we have nobody else unaccounted for in the rubble or debris that's been left as a result of this disaster."
Neighbors said the tornado sirens went off twice Sunday night, with many people making it to safety with on a few minutes or seconds to spare. The threat of a second twister also briefly delayed the search for injured.
"While we were beginning our emergency response, we did go under another tornado warning," explained Fire Marshal Allen. "At that time we did have to pull our emergency responders off the street to seek shelter… but we suffered no damage as a result of that second tornado warning."
On Washington Street two families, on either side of the road, took shelter in closets. But the brick walls were no match for the high winds. Residents like Amy Parish emerged to find the walls missing and possessions destroyed. "We grabbed pillows and went into my sons closet and put pillows over our heads and basically prayed. It was within five minutes you could hear like a freight train and tell it was coming right down our road."
Interrupted cell phone did hamper communication between first responders. Fire Marshal Allen said, "The cell tower for AT&T went down during the storm and it limited our emergency responder capability of communicating outside. It was extremely difficult until this morning when it came back up."
As far as area schools, Van Independent School District Superintendent Don Dunn said, "Last night's storm created some significant damage to our elementary campuses… as well as the Van ISD administration building and our bus barn." All schools in the district are closed. During the Monday afternoon press conference officials said damaged schools would be uninhabitable for the rest of the semester. Students will be sent to satellite schools.
Van Zandt County officials said it has been decades since a storm this strong hit the area – the last being an EF-5 tornado that hit in 1943.
Initially, there had been a call for donations of water, non-perishable items, clothes and blankets, but the response has been more than expected and too much to handle. "Our community truly appreciates the generosity of our neighbors," Allen said. "And at this time we ask for more prayers than anything else. We're being overrun with supplies." The public is being advised to check the City of Van Facebook page to find out what is needed and where it can be taken.
Earlier Monday Van Zandt County Judge Don Kirkpatrick noted the hard work underway and the future plans for the area. "We're working very hard to get Van back to normal. Please be patient with us, there's a lot of work going on behind the scene. Van is a strong city… strong community. We will rebuild!"
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