Storms trigger tornado warning in north Texas, reports of buildings collapsing in Arlington

The Arlington Fire Department and police said they were assisting each other in relief work.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area in the United States’ north Texas witnessed the passage of severe storms on Tuesday night, prompting weather alerts and tornado warnings by the National Weather Service (NWS), local media reported. The NWS’ weather alarm was for Arlington as well.

Damage reported in Arlington (twitter.com/ArlingtonPD)

The NWS recorded wind speeds of up to 81mph around 8:55pm in Arlington, local reports quoted meteorologist Matt Stalley as saying. Though tornado warnings were allowed to expire on the weakening of the storms, winds in Arlington reportedly uprooted trees and toppled power lines. There were also reports of buildings collapsing in several areas.

The Arlington fire department tweeted its units had responded to distress calls at multiple locations, along with the Arlington Police, and was assessing the structures. “The Arlington Fire Department and @ArlingtonPD have responded to multiple locations in Arlington with reports of collapsed buildings. Our units are currently assessing the structures, triaging potential patients and moving to other reported locations. We will keep you updated,” the fire department tweeted.

The NWS issued tornado warnings for several other areas as well, including Dallas. These warnings forecast winds with a speed of up to 60mph. However, another warning, a severe one, that was scheduled to last until 2am on Wednesday, projected wind speed could reach 70mph and also left open the possibility of tornadoes.

While the temperatures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were in the 70s, the NWS forecast these would drop into the 40s by Wednesday morning.