Posted on 05/10/2006 7:29:31 AM PDT by nhoward14
Emergency crews were using heat-seeking sensors and canine units Wednesday morning to search for victims of two tornadoes that roared across northern Collin County late Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 10 more.
An elderly couple were found dead in a destroyed home in Westminster, while a teenager was found deceased at a separate location, Collin County spokeswoman Leigh Hornsby said. No identities were immediately available.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I could see the storm build and feed itself from my back porch, and it sure was a big one. It just hovered there for about 30-45 minutes while growing bigger.
It touched down about 20 miles north of where I live, and at one point early in the evening we were getting pretty nervous too, as the storm was following a south-east track.
Prayers for the families in Anna and Westminster.
Collin County, Texas is one of the fastest growing counties in the country, which makes a tornado touchdown more likely to kill/injure people.
bump for my neighbors.
My house is in escrow in CA so we can move to Collin County. Wow! How far is Westminster from Allen?
The fast growing parts of Collin are in the NW quadrant and the southern half.
Northeastern Collin where the tornadoes hit is still rural and very likely to stay that way for a while.
Had the tornado touched down about 5-10 miles south or 5-10 miles west of where it did, the destruction definitely would be a lot worse.
Westminster is roughly 25 miles northeast of Allen.
http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&do=nw&rmm=1&un=m&cl=EN&ct=NA&rsres=1&1ffi=&1l=&1g=&1pl=&1v=&1n=&2ffi=&2l=&2g=&2pl=&2v=&2n=&1pn=&1a=&1c=allen&1s=tx&1z=&2pn=&2a=&2c=westminster&2s=tx&2z=&r=f
Allen is even further south from where we are in Frisco, so not to worry. It seems as if the tornado ally for this area is well to the north or the west.
As someone else said, both Westminster and Anna are rural communities closer to the northern border of Collin County. If this had hit 10 miles to the south, in McKinney or Frisco, it could have been much worse than the already tragic figures.
I made the same trek to Allen, TX last April from LA, CA.
One of the best moves I've made in life. Drop me a line when you get settled in, neighbor.
I'm just east of Ford Park, in between Bethany and Park Place.
I too, sat in my back yard last night watching the light show. Horrible that something so beautiful turned into something deadly.
About a 15 minute drive to the north. Close enough to last night's storm to see the lightning but far enough away to miss the rain/hail/twister. Welcome to Allen.
I was watching the light show last night too. Strangest storm I've ever seen. I live about 40 miles northwest of Anna.
Nice to know there are so many Freepers in the Collin County area. It's a great place to live.
I'm down here in Richardson, about 35mi south of Anna, and you could see that thing all the way down here. You're right, it was a big weird-looking storm.
Hey, al - good to see you on the public part -- I have'nt forgotten about the horse riding lessons. The lady that we are trying to get this done with has had some problems with her own health (surgery) and the health of some of her horses.
We are trying to figure out if we stay patient and wait for her to resume on the fall or track down another lady that we a line on that offers the same service at the same cost. I'll keep you posted. And if you find anybody, please let me know.
Did areas outside of the tornado strike zone have damage? Specifically wondering about the Stonebridge area of McKinney. Have family there and can't reach them this morning -- probably just means they're out running around.
We were warned about hail (pea sized) in the area. It is quite possible that some phone lines or a cell repeating tower or two got damaged, and that could be affecting your attempts to communicate with your family.
That area was a good 10-15 miles away from where the twisters touched down, so I am sure they are OK -- probably like you said; out running around or having some issues with phone lines/cell coverage. I'm not sure if McKinney got hit with some hail, though that's possible. One heck of a HUGE storm cell formation I was looking at last night. Lots of lightning, and that's another possibilty -- maybe TXU has'nt gotten a shot at fixing blown transformers or downed power lines and your family's power may be out.
Thanks for the info. I'm in the Waco area where we were hit over the weekend, and this made me a little jumpy for them. We were without power for most of the weekend and cell towers were down. I know sometimes there's widespread wind damage far outside the funnel area. Knowing my mom she's at the mall, lol.
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