Local News
Tornado Touches Down in Rusk, Texas, Taking Out Roofs and Power Lines
KLTV reports that the tornado that touched down in Rusk, Texas on Tuesday night around 6:50 p.m. has now been categorized as an EF-2 tornado. Originally, the National Weather Service only rated it as an EF -1, but they increased the rating by Wednesday afternoon since the storm’s winds reached 115 mph. The tornado terrifyingly measured 691 yards in width and traveled for a total of 3.1 miles.
The funnel took out power lines, trees, lifted off roofs, and severely damaged several structures. “We had some very warm weather for this time of year, so we had a lot of moisture in the air. And, we had a bunch of thunderstorms going off last night. This storm was on the boundary which started developing. This one produced a tornado here,” NWS meteorologist, Mario Valverde told the news.
East Texas Matters writes that one man even had to come to his father’s rescue after the destructive storm hit. Paul Emerson says he lives a couple of miles away from his father’s house which was right in line with the tornado. Emerson spoke to his dad as his roof was lifted off of his home! Emerson then rushed over to his father’s house with a few friends. They attempted to cut through trees blocking the road with chainsaws but were unsuccessful, so they swam across a creek to get to Emerson’s dad. They found him safely hunkered down in his home and were able to get him back across the creek to safety thanks to a few trusty ropes.