Strong storms spin tornado, flood streets

Strong storms pounded the Houston area on Monday, flooding streets, spawning a tornado and dropping hail. Severe thunderstorm warnings, flash flood warnings and flood advisories remain issued for southeast Texas counties.Weather Alerts IssuedRadars | Radar Loop | Lightning Tracker "Whenever a thunderstorm is strong enough to produce hail, it's strong enough to produce a tornado. They almost go hand-in-hand" KPRC chief meteorologist Frank Billingsley said. "These heavy rains continue to push across Houston and into the east at 25 mph. Four inches of rain has been common south of Interstate 10. Although there's not much behind this system, we're going to continue to deal with this until 2 o'clock." By 1:30 p.m., the coastal areas and Galveston County began feeling the brunt of the storm. Fort Bend County was hit the hardest. Sugar Land recorded the most rain with 6.20 inches as of noon. Katy had 4.36 inches. Pearland logged 3.88 inches and Houston had 4.20 inches of rain. "We've got a lot of lightning with this system and that's also a big danger," KPRC meteorologist Anthony Yanez said. "There's a lot of heavy rain." A tornado touched down in Fort Bend County along FM 1093 and FM 723 shortly after 9:30 a.m. The Sheriff's Office said power lines and trees were down in the area. Beverly Moore heard the tornado approach her house on FM 723. "All the doors in the house were trying to open and shut. It sounded like a train going through, so we hid in the closet," she said. "It was definitely a tornado. We hid for about 15 minutes." "We've heard of roof damage in a neighborhood," said a spokesman with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office. "There's been quite a bit of flooding. There's been some hail but we haven't heard anything about injuries." Several homes in the Kingsbridge Place neighborhood in Fort Bend County were severely damaged by the storms. Bricks, wood and shingles were torn off houses and garage doors were twisted and bent. "I was actually sleeping when it all happened," resident Umair Sayyed said. "All you hear is it starts raining harder and you can feel the wind pushing inside the house. Then the door flies open and the ceiling starts leaking." Other homes in the area were also damaged. "It was like someone dropped a bomb," resident Archie Okono said. "I was so scared. I was about 2 yards away from the window and I hard something hit the window so loud." The Richmond Fire Department helped residents evacuate around Third Street as water crept into houses. "We've had reports of water in homes," said Alan Spears with the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management. "We had some boat evacuations going on. A funnel cloud was spotted on Highway 99 shortly after 9 a.m., but there were no reports of it touching down. Afternoon pre-kindergarten classes were canceled for the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District. The Houston Independent School District canceled evening classes at Liberty High School, 6400 Southwest Freeway, Monday because of high water in the parking lots. The school district said it was not going to cancel after-school events, but individual campuses were permitted to make cancelations based on conditions in the area. A tornado was reported near Mall of the Mainland in Texas City around 1:30 p.m. There was some roof damage at the Sears store. CenterPoint Energy said approximately 6,700 customers were without power at 3:30 p.m. due to the storm. An upper-level low will move through the Houston-area the rest of the day. "We've got a stalled front and a lot of moisture coming in from the sub-tropical jet-stream. A pattern like this brings in a good amount of rain," Yanez said. Houston drivers dealt with slick streets for their early morning commute. "We had a wave of rain move through at about 1 to 2 a.m.," Yanez said. "It's going to be wet all day long, at least off and on. We're going to get a lot of rain out of this today, up to 5 inches in spots." Morning showers are also possible on Tuesday, and Houstonians have a chilly week ahead. "Our next freeze could come in on Friday," Yanez said. More Weather: Houston JustWeather.comSevere Weather AlertsWeather Maps and RadarsRadar LoopsLightning TrackerWeather Videos Check Traffic Now:Houston TranStar Real-Time Traffic MapTraffic Pulse Real-Time Traffic MapJennifer's Traffic BlogTraffic SectionHouston TranstarTexas Dept. of Transportation Web site (or call 800-452-9292)Harris County Office of Emergency Management Web site Construction Information:Map: Freeway Construction ProjectsTxDOT Freeway Construction Schedule Airline and Airport Links:Houston Airport System: Bush Intercontinental and Hobby AirportsAirTran AirwaysAmerican AirlinesContinental AirlinesDelta AirlinesFrontier AirlinesJetBlueNorthwest AirlinesSouthwest AirlinesUnited AirlinesU.S. Airways

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45928765/ns/local_news-houston_tx/

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