UPDATE: The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado with peak wind speed of 85 mph touched down Sunday night in Panola County 8 miles southwest of Beckville.
The cyclone traveled .8 miles with a width of 150 yards. The tornado began at 7:36 p.m. and ended at 7:38 p.m. Sunday night. There were no reported injuries or fatalities.
According to the NWS Shreveport, it touched down south of U.S. 79 and west of County Road 280 in the western part of the county.
The report said the tornado damaged branches out of trees and uprooted a few more. The tornado moved east-northeast along the north side of U.S. 79, where it snapped and uprooted a few trees and damaged the roof of a residential home. It continued east-northeast breaking more branches before lifting near the intersection of County Road 1251 and County Road 124.
At least two tornadoes touched down in East Texas over the weekend snapping tree limbs, tearing shingles from roofs and damaging windows.
The weather service on Monday confirmed a tornado with estimated wind speed of 80 mph touched down overnight Sunday north of Wills Point in Van Zandt County. The weather service’s survey team located damage on County Road 3849.
According to NWS, both tornadoes are classified as an EF-0, rating, which includes wind speeds between 65 to 85 mph.
Survey teams from were also investigating Rusk County Monday for the severity of tornado damages.
A report regarding Rusk County revealed tornado-type damages, but the team had not determined the rating or path of the storm.
Patrick Dooley, Rusk County deputy emergency manager, said the area the weather service surveyed started south of U.S. 79 East in Rusk County near Reklaw and continued toward Panola County.
The weather service expected to complete its investigations Monday afternoon.
Outside of East Texas, the Dallas area saw more severe damage to homes and businesses after an EF-3 tornado, which has maximum wind speed of 140 mph, touched down in North Dallas and an EF-1, with maximum wind speed of 100 mph, touched down in Rowlett, according to the Associated Press.
Storms in Arkansas and Oklahoma the same night killed at least four people, the AP reported. In light of the storm damage in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration Monday covering 16 North and East Texas counties.
These include: Cass, Cameron, Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Erath, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Panola, Rains, Rockwall, Rusk, Tarrant, Van Zandt and Wood, according to a news release.
“By issuing this declaration, Texas is providing local officials with the resources they need to quickly respond and recover from this storm,” Abbott said. “My heart goes out to the Texans impacted by this severe weather, and the people of Texas can rest assured that the state will do everything it can to assist those affected by these horrific storms.”
The declaration also allows some regulations to be waived, including letting utility companies obtain out-of-state resources to help restore power quickly.
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