Tornado destroys homes in Tomball

TOMBALL (FOX 26) - Tomball residents are cleaning up after a tornado toppled trees, destroyed homes and even killed a woman early Wednesday morning.

Teams from the National Weather Service have been out all across the area assessing the damage.  The NWS has confirmed it was an EF-O tornado that hit with winds between 60-85 mph.

The sounds of trucks and chainsaws now fill the Willow Oaks neighborhood. 

"Trees crashing to the ground," said one resident. 

There's plenty of cleaning up to do after the tornado hit around 4:30 a.m. 

"I thought it was like an earthquake or something because it started shaking like the house," said Maria Perez.

Anthony Slaton's childhood house, like several others in the mobile home neighborhood, was split in half by a falling tree. 

"Words can't describe the feelings that as soon as you see your home gone.You can't explain that, you don't know how to feel," said Slaton.

His parents inside were not hurt. The 62-year-old woman just 2 doors down wasn't so lucky.
She died when a tree came crashing through. 

"You can't imagine until you're standing in front of it to see if house just cut in half by trees. Unreal," said neighbor Patrick Rowe.

Another man had to be rescued by firefighters and hospitalized with back and leg injuries. 

"The storm is obviously bad this morning, but we know we have not seen this amount of damage in a very long time," said Klein Fire Chief David Bessolo.

Dorian Hernandec's Dad had a refrigerator fall on him when a falling tree split their home in two. 

"I could just hear my dad screaming from across the house 'it's a tornado it's a tornado everybody get down it's a tornado,'" she recalled.

Volunteers from the Red Cross are now on the scene with supplies. 

"We come out to feed to give water to get snacks to all the workers to the people that were affected," said Terry Lewis with the Red Cross.

Tomball tornado damage drone footage, courtesy of Skynet Aerial Platforms