At least one person was killed and several more injured after a powerful storm front spawned multiple tornadoes in the Greater Houston metro area Saturday afternoon, officials said.
North of Houston, tornadoes touched down in Katy, Cypress, Porter Heights and Splendora, according to the National Weather Service, while south of Houston, multiple homes were destroyed when a tornado touched down between Alvin and Liverpool. The weather service issued a flurry of tornado warnings for the region.
One person died in the Liverpool area, and four people suffered injuries that weren’t considered critical, said Madison Polston, spokesperson for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.
Polston said there were “multiple touchdown points” in the county between Liverpool and Hillcrest Village and Alvin. She said that so far they know of around 10 damaged homes but they are still working to determine the extent of the damage.
Jason Smith, deputy chief of staff for Montgomery County, which is located just north of Houston, told CBS News in an email that 50 to 100 homes were damaged by severe weather, downing trees and powerlines.
Smith added that at least two people were hospitalized, but so far there were no reports of critical injuries.
Mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in Katy and Porter Heights, where the doors of a fire station were blown in, the weather service said.
The weather service wrote that “a large and extremely dangerous tornado” was located near Stowell, which is east of Houston in Chambers County.
Early Saturday afternoon, Houston’s two main airports — Houston Bush Intercontinental and Houston Hobby — had departure delays of over an hour that were increasing due to the storms, according to the website FlightAware.
