Violent tornado rips through North Texas area, leveling homes

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]It has now been one full week of severe weather across the central and southern US. And the threat continues tonight.

[00:00:06]Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Missouri. All had hard-hit moments in the past 24 hours. Our Jason Allen has made it to some of the worst of it in Mineral Wells, Texas. Look at that picture. Jason, good evening.

[00:00:19]>> Yeah. Hey, good evening, Tony. You know, the owners of this business, they closed the doors just minutes before this storm hit. Employees left. They came back today to find this. Utility crews are surging into the area tonight. They are beginning this very big job of trying to get power lines back up so that people here can start cleaning up.

[00:00:41]A home security camera captured the moment. A violent tornado with winds reaching an estimated 145 mph ripped through Mineral Wells, Texas. Debris rained down as the tornado moved over the edge of the city, leveling homes and shredding entire neighborhoods.

[00:00:58]>> Wow.

[00:01:00]>> This is just tore up, isn't it?

[00:01:02]>> Yes.

[00:01:03]>> Trees are There's still branches.

[00:01:05]They're dangling and hanging. It's kind of I can hear them cracking sometimes that they're going to fall.

[00:01:10]>> Eileen Hurley sheltered with her family in a hallway while the tornado splintered trees and damaged the home she's lived in for 40 years.

[00:01:17]>> And we always heard the start. I ain't hear nothing. Nothing at all. It was just fast. Just a split second and it popped up.

[00:01:24]>> People in this neighborhood told me this storm came in fast. They could see power flashes. They could hear a roar. And then within seconds, it was on top of them, going right across the top of this neighborhood, then down a hill into another one, tearing apart homes and businesses.

[00:01:38]>> The total ended up being five injuries and several others that were treated on scene and refused to be transported to the hospital. From above, destruction spread in every direction at an industrial park. The buildings for several major employers in the small city were flattened in seconds.

[00:01:56]>> There were uh two major manufacturers, large uh large companies, large buildings uh that were heavily heavily damaged. What we don't have just yet is an exact number on how many employees will potentially be displaced.

[00:02:12]>> The storms have moved into East Texas and Louisiana tonight. There is rain in the forecast here, but thankfully a much lower chance of this severe weather that we have seen over the last several days.

[00:02:23]Tony Jason Allen for us in Texas. Jason, thank you very much.