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Tornado Devastates Texas Panhandle Town

At least 3 dead in Perryton
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 16, 2023 1:00 AM CDT
Tornado Devastates Texas Panhandle Town
Buildings and vehicles show damage after a tornado struck Perryton, Texas, Thursday, June 15, 2023.   (AP Photo/David Erickson)

A tornado ripped through the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton on Thursday, killing three people, injuring dozens more, and causing widespread damage as another in a series of fierce storms carved its way through Southern states, the AP reports. The National Weather Service in Amarillo confirmed that a tornado hit the area Thursday afternoon. Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher told reporters that three people were killed in the storm. He said at least one person was killed in a mobile home park that took a “direct hit” from a tornado. Dutcher said at least 30 trailers were damaged or destroyed. At 6pm, firefighters were rescuing people from the rubble.

First responders from surrounding areas and from Oklahoma descended on the town, which is home to more than 8,000 people and about 115 miles northeast of Amarillo, just south of the Oklahoma line. Storm chaser Brian Emfinger told Fox Weather that he watched the twister move through a mobile home park, mangling trailers and uprooting trees. “I had seen the tornado do some pretty serious destruction to the industrial part of town,” he said. “Unfortunately, just west of there, there is just mobile home, after mobile home, after mobile home that is completely destroyed. There is significant damage.” Nearly 50,000 customers were without electricity in Texas and Oklahoma, according to the poweroutage.us website.

(More Texas stories.)

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