Reports are a roof collapsed at a truck stop in valley view. Dozens trapped. Danger hit too.

I posted some pics here - https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...here-comes-the-next-dry-line#Post9052445

These were blown over right on I35 close to the station

man, hope all are alright.

I was watching them form up and it looked like I was going to get it again then they shifted north a bit. this week is already looking bad again for up here.

It 's bad all over Ray Roberts, closed all boat ramps , the Marina store is torn down , trailers torn up ,

Interstate is closed from Gainesville to Sanger almost.

How about 51 from Decatur to Gainesville? Is it open?

From what I can tell, yes. Era got hit hard by hail but I don't think the tornado was down until east of Era. I might go look around a little when my family gets up.

I appreciate the info. Headed to Winstar shortly and 51 is the route I take to Gainesville.

At least five dead is the report I got from a local person

35 is open save one spot south of Gainesville where it's diverted. I took 51 south from 35 past the college then north to Lindsay. 51 seems fine.

Prayers up for those folks.

Does anybody know if the Alan Ritchey building got hit?

I
i don't think so - this gas station is just 1 exit to the south on Lone Oak . . .

there is tons of pics and videos if you search VALLEY VIEW TORNADO on Facebook.
Only place I've found sofar with videos posted from people who were in it,
including a woman who rode it out in her car at the intersection,
and from people inside the gas station.

My house/ranch is a half dozen miles to the east of this gas station
- we were puckered up in underground tornado shelter for the first time in 7 years -
it hailed but hopped over us before it touched down again a bit in Pilot Point

The damage extends from Ray Roberts east into Celina, as well. At least 5 dead per the Cooke County sheriff.

I have a couple co-workers that live in Mountain Springs and one owns a lot of land along the east side of 35 near Ray Roberts. Waiting for replies from them. The hail in Era was pretty bad from what I hear.

I'm right here in Mountain Springs - closer to the Johnson Branch LRR entrance. power was out all night till just couple hours ago...

video of woman in car just on the West side of I35 when it hit the Gas Station on the East side, at that same intersection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf1jlmbMyV0

They're very lucky.

That woman was fairly calm after her initial fit.

I am in town for the weekend visiting my family in Pilot Point. It’s been 45 years since I was last in a tornado at the age of two, however, I remember it vividly. I kept getting the alerts and then checking Weather Bug last night, which showed the storm had already passed us so I was ignoring them. Suddenly, my mother came running in and said we have 2 mins before it hits and I am questioning that per what WeatherBug was reporting. I checked MyRadar and she was right, it was on our doorstep.

This may be one of the only times as a father, I was scared for our lives and felt as though I was helpless. It’s after midnight, with no where to go and not much I can do. You cant’t see a thing and all I can do is go off of memories from years again. I texted my 16 yo son who had stayed home in Midland and told him I loved him and that we were supposed to have impact by a tornado within minutes. My youngest daughter, 10, was hysterical. We emptied my father’s closest, one of the few interior spaces to hunker down in. I had everyone put on shoes, grab their cell phones and the adults to grab their car keys. I threw a mattress over them and my brother and I went around checking windows to see if we could see it coming before we would head for the closet as well. Dumb idea I know. Winds were insane. At one point a gust of wind was felt so strong that it pushed me through the window and then felt like it was trying to suck it back out of the house. Reports I saw were 110 mph+ winds but I can’t confirm that.

What I remember from the prior tornado was we had initially brutal winds, hail etc, and then a complete pause/silence where it seemed like it was over and then the tornado made its presence known just like a freight train coming through the front door. I kept telling my younger brother this as we were watching and waiting, “if it goes quiet, we are in trouble”. Within minutes, it did, nothing was moving. I told him it’s time to go. We hunkered down, waited, waited, waited, MyRadar was showing a 10 min delay on their tracking map so we didn’t know what was happening. Eventually, the radar map updated and it had cleared. We were safe.

Fortunately we had no significant damage at my parents, minor cosmetic stuff to the house and trees down down. Hearing reports of the wreckage and lives lost on the West side of Ray Robert’s is devastating. Travelers just trying to get out of harms way, so sad to hear. I haven’t ventured out in town here in Pilot Point yet, and can only pray it’s not as bad as what the West side of the lake saw.

It’s a simple reminder to be prepared, have a plan, and make the best out of a terrible situation. I hope no one’s loved ones were affected by this and pray for those lives lost.

What an experience, so glad all is well with you and yours. Thanks for sharing.

What an experience, so glad all is well with you and yours. Thanks for sharing.

yeah; I myself have stopped at that same gas station at least a few times while headed home when storms/hail got so heavy couldn't see the road.

There would always be at least a few cars that would try to pull in across the bar-ditch that runs along the front (missing the paved entrance), - and stall out
cause it was so deep in water you couldn't see grass anymore - the water stretched from road to parking lot...
noticed a few like that from all the online pics on this storm... sad but it happens...

Anybody heard from Senior?

A good friend of mine is a Frisco FD Captain. He was working overtime yesterday and got sent to Celina on the Rescue. Several off duty Firemen live on the same road there. Multiple houses were total loss and people trapped. I don't think there was any deaths in Celina, as of right now.

I just sent him a text.

the 2 most accurate weather apps I have found, I monitor both when needed, are

https://www.windy.com/-Weather-radar-radar?radar,33.290,-97.098,9

and the fox 4 wapp on the phone, windy is on pc and phone, I suggest the yrly premium (20.00).

both of these are very accurate and good radar.

I can confirm that it went down exactly as you wrote - we were in an old storm shelter underground just a few miles West-NW of you there in Pilot Point,
and witnessed the same blowing and pauses, hail & heavy-rain dropping, and ears popping, etc;
I think it 'hopped' over us as damage here is minimal, just some downed branches.

I had just fallen asleep (to bed early) when my kids woke me and said we gotta go to the shelter (1st time in the 7 years we been here!),
only had time to slip shoes on and grab a flashlight on the way there,
- didn't even get to 'cellphone' on the mental list of things to grab...it was already starting to hail...
they of course had theirs - I think they're glued to their fingers or something.....

Having a plan is right; we were in the dang shelter before I really began to 'wake up' ...

Glad y’all are safe. Harrowing story

He said it just missed them and they’re good.

I was worried about him based on the reports. Glad to here is safe and sound!

friend in winnsboro texted and said palestine resort is gone and greenville apparently had one on the ground somewhere.

Fox 4 news reporting 7 dead now.

Friends from Tioga are in the search for three kids missing. All my people have reported back, no injuries but property damage ranging from mild to extreme.

Stuff can be replaced.

I was on Fox news this morning , i'm the ugly guy at the boat ramp with 2 women , blue shirt with two ugly women , they ain't mine, i have my back to the camera , he could have a better side than my butt , he should be fired

https://www.radaromega.com/ is another good one. It is about $10 and can use on the phone. With the higher dollar subscriptions you can add in more radar higher resolution and faster but the basic is pretty good.

You just cost me $120, it looks like a solid purchase though so I appreciate you posting it

hope the missing children are okay

They were INDEED VERY lucky!
Looking at this again and piecing it together, I know exactly where this car stopped, (SB FR IH35@ Lone Oak / FM3002).
Exactly in-between the community (FRF Estates) where the fatalities occurred (1/2mi wnw) and the Shell Truck Stop Gas Station that was annihlated.
If you watch the video carefully you can see the wind / blowing-hail change directions as it progresses.
Perhaps her saving grace is that there is a house/trees to her immediate right (west),
and the overpass-hill to her left (east) ,
that may have helped block some of the high winds right where she stopped!

I got it after watching some on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LylWCAQuHcY. Top package gets you what they are using, Impressed me enough to get it after looking into it.

descriptions of dead still silence and then freight train are right on point.. been in direct path in 5 tornados and thankful to have survived. night time ones are super scary. most were back in the 70s. wife is truly terrified of them and she's never even been in one.

Prayers up for families loss of life and damage.

Thanks for the Radar Omega tip. just downloaded and will add to wife and tell adult kids to get it also

I grew up in Kansas. Went through a couple of near misses. Tornadoes are terrible things. At least with a hurricane you have several days warning, and not mere minutes. Glad you are ok.

grew up in Okieland and Texas/15 yrs. as a kid then off and on later.

no telling how many funnel clouds I have seen, been IN 5 naders that did damage to where we were (nothing like this stuff), dodged naders 6-7 times in the semi and hid in a truck stop in far west Okieland while watching one go overhead and touch down a couple hundred yds. past the flying j on the north side, we were on the south side of 40.

anyone that tries to say this is "climate change" is a total loon, just go look up wichita falls 79 or any of the outbreaks that have happened over the yrs.

sad that folks die with the tech. we have now and the early warnings, I grew up with gary england as our go to weather man. before radar.

check it for accuracy ie. storm position relevant to your position, noaa can be off by as much as 50 mi.

Abbot about to address the State from Sanger/Valley View

I grew up in OKC watching Gary England as well. I've still got a lot of family in OKC and Norman and watch David Payne on line. Their radar is much better than anything I've seen in DFW and with their network of live storm chasers makes for lively updates.

david payne is the goat of weather chasers, that is how he took over for gary. dude rocks when there are bad storms around and ole bob in the chopper is no slouch.

from a couple of days ago.




he and the chasers will come into north Tx. if it is warranted

Harold Taft was the most gifted and smartest weather man EVER. I learned to read radar from his explanations. Pecos Hank is my GOAT chaser in the modern era.

harold is my weather idol. had a lot of family that worked for ma bell in dfw in the 60s/70s, one uncle was over all pay phones in the nation. lol.

we hid a couple of times due to harold sayin so, around mesquite area I think? mid/late 60s maybe? may remember him from when I worked in dfw for a couple of yrs. I'm old.

I was not quite alive in the '60's but I have been to Mesquite before. It's where cowboys and crank are.

Don Woods was mine. They were cut from the same cloth.

Insert like button

Harold is an Enid native.

Everything was south of him he's Ok.

We had one get within a mile of the house last night. Second time I’ve been that close to one. Thought it was going to miss us 5-10 miles north but the storm took a southeast direction last minute. Sounded like a train and I saw the power flashes as it went by. Weird feeling. Scary part was I almost asleep in bed about an hour before. Had a gut feeling I needed to stay up for that one.

I’m between Celeste and Greenville. Pucker factor was high as I knew what this lone super cell was capable of since it had all of the atmospheric energy to itself to feed off of. We were hunkered in master bedroom closet wearing our motorcycle helmets and added pillows from the bed. I took a screenshot of the radar where the circulation on Doppler is basically right over us. Thankfully not on the ground and was in a weakening phase.

Eerily though, the HRRR weather product on early Saturday showed that supercell developing and the track was spot on. The timing was a little off as it had it coming through earlier than it did.

My son’s home was destroyed in 2014 by an EF-4 and being there by the next day in the aftermath is something you can’t ever forget.

I got my ham radio license back in late 70’s and became a trained NWS storm spotter. I have followed the advancements in radar technology and it’s nothing short of amazing what we have today, available to us on our own portable devices.

Also wanted to add that in addition to Radar Omega, I use Radar Scope which is used by many of the storm spotters/chasers. Doesn’t have as many advanced features that RO has, but has ability to show 4 panes on larger screens like my iPad whereas RO is limited to 2.

My prayers and condolences to all of those who lost loved ones and/or property these past several weeks. It has been an ugly 4 or 5 weeks for the heartland.

Preliminary NWS ratings are putting the Valley View tornado at a high end EF2 with max winds to 135mph and tornado near Celina at EF3, max winds of 165mph.

Sunday afternoon we drove down to Frisco (from VV/MS) taking the 'back' way- 922/121 across to Gunter then taking 289/Preston Rd south:

We saw where the tornado obviously crossed 289 closer to Celina- twisted & snapped trees on both sides of the road in the open rural fields,
and telephone/power poles snapped like toothpicks on both sides of the road!
That had to be pretty damn strong wind to make all these power-poles snap! No Trees/branches anywhere near these lines - they were just bare out in the open!

A little closer to town and ALL the tall STEEL stadium lighting poles ( west side of 289) were snapped over like twigs!

Now we didn't take a joy-ride just to go see damage - we were headed to a church in Frisco and this is just the stuff we saw obvious from the hwy!

NWS upgraded their preliminary Valley View tornado rating from strong EF2 to low end EF3 and Celina's a high end EF3.

Been helping best we can with clean up since Sunday. Loss of life and loss of property is sad to see. The outpouring of good will and Christ like love is a beautiful thing to see!