Twister Churns Along Highway in Texas; 2 Motorists Are Killed

A tornado churned across a Texas highway Friday night, causing accidents that killed at least two people and damaging nearby homes, authorities said.

At least 19 people were reported injured when the twister struck along Farm Road 305 outside the West Texas town of Iraan, said state Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike Cox.

“Apparently it struck cars on the highway as well as ranch houses and possibly some oil field-related structures in the area,” Cox said.

Two people were killed in car accidents caused by the twister, he said. There were five car accidents on 305 and four accidents on another highway, he said.

The injured included two state troopers cut by flying glass when hail and high winds accompanying the tornado blew out the windows of their patrol car on the road 230 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Elsewhere Friday, residents of the Texas Panhandle town of Spearman cleared wreckage left in the wake of a swarm of funnel clouds Thursday, and citizens in waterlogged Vicksburg, Miss., swept out mud left by record flash flooding.

Damage in Spearman was estimated at $5.5 million. Estimates were still being collected in Vicksburg. About 200 Vicksburg residents were forced to higher ground Thursday when thunderstorms dumped as much as seven inches of rain, overflowing creeks and drainage ditches.

Water damage was reported to 187 homes and at least two businesses. Some bridges and roadways in Warren County, on the Mississippi River, also were damaged, said Civil Defense Chief Luther Warnock Jr.

“We’ve even had fire trucks out using their hoses to help wash the mud and debris out of houses before it dries,” Warnock said. “I’ve been here for 30 years and . . . this was the worst flooding anyone can remember.”

In Spearman, 10 mobile homes and 10 houses were reported destroyed. A church also was reported demolished. Some of the mobile homes were “smoothed off to the ground,” said Mayor Burl Buchanan.