Storm drops tree limb on Texas mobile home, 1 dead

POSTED: 7:40 AM Feb 22 2013
Weather
HEMPHILL, Texas (AP) -

One woman is dead after savage winds whipped through rural East Texas and weather officials say a team will be sent to determine if a tornado struck the area.

Sabine County Sheriff Tom Maddox said the storm streaked across the southwestern corner of the county on the Louisiana border about 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Maddox says the storm dropped a tree limb onto a mobile home about 145 miles northeast of Houston, fatally injuring 74-year-old Louise Pillow Stringer.

Maddox said 25 homes were damaged and debris patterns look like those left behind by a tornado, rather than straight-line winds.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Hansford in Shreveport, La., said the agency has no conclusive evidence of a tornado, but a survey team will be sent to investigate the area Friday.

  • Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.