Tornado Cuts Path in Central Houston

A tornado touched down Tuesday in the center of the city, injuring at least 26 people as it smashed windows at office towers and damaged an apartment complex and a restaurant, officials said.

The headquarters building of Enron Corp, a natural gas company, was evacuated after three employees were hurt by flying glass from about 50 smashed windows on the 31st to 34th floors of the glass-fronted building, police said.

The tornado sheared off part of the roof of a nearby two-story apartment building and damaged the roof and broke windows at Brennan’s Restaurant.

“Despite the terrible destructive nature of this storm, we had surprisingly few injuries” said Paul Pepe, director of the city’s emergency medical services department. He said none of the victims was seriously hurt, and only three people were taken to local hospitals.

One Enron employee told radio station KTRH that he saw the funnel cloud heading straight toward him as he looked out a window of the building.

The tornado cut a swath through a section of the city’s business district, blowing down trees, downing power lines, smashing the windshields of parked cars and shattering windows in several other office towers.

Heavy rains that accompanied the tornado caused some street flooding before the weather system moved out of the city.