DALLAS — Strong storms spawned several tornadoes and dumped heavy rain on north Texas overnight, flooding roads and damaging train tracks in an area where a freight train derailed before dawn on Friday, officials said.
Several tornadoes skipped through Wise, Denton and Cooke counties late Thursday, damaging some structures, said Jesse Moore, a forecaster in Fort Worth. Officials had no immediate reports of injuries.
"That one thunderstorm that produced a tornado, I know it dropped down several times, but it wasn't on the ground the whole time," Moore said.
It was the second straight night of storms, and forecasters warned that the conditions were ripe for even stronger ones Friday and Saturday. A tornado watch was in effect for parts of West Texas and the Panhandle, including Lubbock and Amarillo, until late Friday afternoon.
The Gainesville area, 65 miles northwest of Dallas, received more than 5 inches of rain in the 24-hour period ending Friday morning, Moore said. Nearby Valley View had almost 3.5 inches of rain, according to Moore.
BNSF Railway officials are trying to determine if the weather caused a 17-car derailment a mile south of Valley View early Friday. Four crewmembers were slightly hurt, said Joe Faust, a spokesman for Fort Worth-based BNSF.
"Certainly high wind was reported and high water, but we have not determined a cause yet," Faust said.
Aerial views of the derailment site showed sections of track damaged or washed away.
A natural gas well fire in Denton was extinguished before dawn Friday. Nobody was hurt. Eyewitness reports indicate a lightning strike may have started the fire Thursday night, said Lindsey Baker, a spokeswoman for the city.
Some roads at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport flooded overnight, leading to several vehicles swamped and forcing the closure of the entrance to Terminal E, said David Magana, a DFW airport spokesman. Pumps helped clear the floodwaters and the roads reopened Friday morning.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
