A severe storm ripped through a city west of Dallas on Tuesday night, with fierce winds and a possible tornado leaving a trail of shredded homes and businesses.
Two people in the city, Mineral Wells, Texas, were reported hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and other residents were displaced from their homes, as officials assessed the damage on Wednesday morning.
Strong winds were reported throughout the region on Tuesday night. The Mineral Wells Regional Airport reported a gust of nearly 60 miles per hour.
Kent Farquhar, an emergency official with Palo Pinto County, which contains part of Mineral Wells, said on his agency’s social media page on Tuesday night that multiple buildings had collapsed in the city. Several people had been trapped inside buildings but were able to get out by themselves or with minimal assistance, he said.
The storm was the latest in a wave of weather systems that have walloped parts of the central United States for nearly a week, damaging homes and cars, flooding neighborhoods and knocking out power for thousands from Texas to Michigan to Kentucky.
Baseball-size hail was reported in North Texas and parts of Missouri, where the state highway patrol posted photos of several squad cars with shattered windshields.
Severe winds also whipped through the Ozarks on Tuesday, killing a 21-year-old emu at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Mo. Another member of the zoo’s avian family, a male rhea, a large flightless bird, was being tended to for injuries, the zoo said.
The harsh weather threat was expected to lessen on Wednesday but still posed potential hazards, especially for parts of the South. Forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center said the most severe storms were expected over parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The primary threats include damaging winds and large hail, with the potential for isolated large hail, exceeding two inches in diameter, in areas of Texas.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Nazaneen Ghaffar and Erin McCann contributed reporting.
