No injuries after severe storm causes ‘catastrophic damage’ to two schools in Texas

By Joe Sutton and Claudia Dominguez, CNN

A severe storm that slammed a Texas city caused significant damage to two schools on Monday.

“I’ve been in the district for 30 years and this is the most catastrophic damage I’ve witnessed,” Jacksboro Independent School District Superintendent Brad Burnett told CNN affiliate WFAA.

Both Jacksboro High School and Jacksboro Elementary sustained damage.

“So we’re just very blessed to have facilities that were designed to sustain a storm, the storm damage that we received. I just know our students were safe in our facilities and I’m thankful for that.”

Burnett said there were no injuries, WFAA reported.

The superintendent said elementary school students became “pretty emotional” when they left the school and saw the damage caused by the storm.

Burnett, who was in the administration building, said that structure didn’t sustain much damage.

Jacksboro is about 57 miles northwest of Fort Worth. A tornado warning, which said there was also a threat of hail, ended at 4:30 p.m.

According to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, there were nine reports of tornadic activity in central Texas near Austin — six in Williamson County, two in Caldwell County and one in Bastrop County.

Authorities in Round Rock, in Williamson County, said a reported tornado moved through around 6 p.m. CT.

There were some minor injuries but no deaths reported, officials said at a news conference.

Many homes, businesses and city-owned buildings sustained significant damage, but emergency responders were still evaluating the specific amount of structures affected, according to Police Chief Allen Banks.

“We will use every resource as a city to recover, and we will recover because of you, the people,” Mayor Craig Morgan said.

Round Rock is about 15 miles north of Austin.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for parts of central and northern Texas until 10 p.m. CDT Monday. About 14 million residents were under the watch, including people in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio.

A few tornadoes have the potential to be intense (EF-2 and greater) and storms could produce hail up to 3 inches in diameter and wind gusts to 75 mph, forecasters said.

The Storm Prediction Center also received reports of possible tornadoes in Lee County, Texas, and Marshall County, Oklahoma.

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