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Weather Service Confirms 10 Tornadoes Hit North Texas Sunday

The Home Depot at Forest and Highway 75 sustained substantial damage from the Oct. 20 tornado.
Pete Thompson
The Home Depot at Forest and Highway 75 sustained substantial damage from Sunday's tornado.

Updated at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 24

The National Weather Service has confirmed that 10 tornadoes hit North Texas Sunday night. After having more time to assess the severe weather this week, officials determined that tornadoes touched down in Dallas, Rockwall, Rowlett, Allen, Kaufman County, Ellis County and Van Zandt County.

Sarah Barnes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said the system in Rockwall was initally misidentified. 

"The tornado that occured in Rockwall was originally thought to be downburst winds, turned out to be an EF-1 tornado of 90 mph winds," Barnes said. "The length was about just under two miles, and it happened in the eastern part of Rockwall coming from the west."

The strongest tornado on Sunday was an EF-3 in Dallas. It traveled more than 15 miles from northwest Dallas into Richardson, with winds as strong as 140 miles per hour. The scale of the other systems ranged from EF-0 to EF-2.

Damage from winds and hail affected communities across North Texas, including Fort Worth, Denton, Corsicana and Greenville. Reports of damage stretched as far as Sherman, about 60 miles north of Dallas.

There have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries. Three people were hospitalized Sunday night for evaluation of non-life-threatening injuries.

About 22,000 customers were still without electricity as of mid-afternoon Tuesday. Oncor continues to work to restore power, with the help of crews from outside the region. An updated list of outages can be found in their website.

In Dallas, several work crews are focused on tree and debris removal. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, city officials said they anticipate clean-up will take up to two weeks.

The Red Cross continued Tuesday to oversee shelter operations at Bachman Lake Recreation Center. The shelter will remain open as long as people need it. Four people stayed at the shelter Monday night.

Justin Martin is KERA’s local host of All Things Considered, anchoring afternoon newscasts for KERA 90.1. Justin grew up in Mannheim, Germany, and avidly listened to the Voice of America and National Public Radio whenever stateside. He graduated from the American Broadcasting School, and further polished his skills with radio veteran Kris Anderson of the Mighty 690 fame, a 50,000 watt border-blaster operating out of Tijuana, Mexico. Justin has worked as holiday anchor for the USA Radio Network, serving the U.S. Armed Forces Network. He’s also hosted, produced, and engineered several shows, including the Southern Gospel Jubilee on 660 KSKY.