NWS: At least EF2 damage found after tornado tears through Houston area

HOUSTON — The storms are gone but there’s a path of destruction that will take weeks to clean up after homes and businesses were shredded when a tornado swept across the Houston area Tuesday.

The National Weather Service in Houston confirmed Wednesday morning that there was at least EF2 damage so far in southeast Houston. Their survey teams are still out looking to determine the official size and path of the tornadoes.  

According to the NWS, EF2 damage means there has been considerable damage like roofs torn from frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light objects become projectiles.

EF2 tornadoes have 111-135 mph winds. 

School is canceled for roughly 25,000 students with Deer Park and Pasadena ISDs both closed. Pasadena ISD is reporting damage to at least four schools. Representatives will be out in the next few hours checking all their schools for student safety.

READ: School districts closed Wednesday due to weather damage

They’re not the only ones who will be out looking at the damage. City officials in Pasadena, Baytown, and Deer Park are all planning damage surveys.

READ: Here’s the path a tornado took through the Houston area

READ: ‘Tornado Emergency’ issued in Houston area for first time

Below is a look at some of the tornado damage from Air 11.

The KHOU 11 Weather Team was tracking the likely path of the tornado as it moved across the southeast region.

The Red Cross opened a shelter inside the Baker Ripley building located at 720 Fairmont Parkway Tuesday night.

Doors opened at 9 p.m. and since then dozens of displaced families are getting assistance, including about 25 to 50 people who were bused here Tuesday night after the tornado destroyed an apartment complex in Houston.

This shelter is crucial right now because so many folks need help including those living in Pasadena. The storm left behind a trail of destruction in this area ripping apart homes and cars and toppling trees and power lines.

Folks living in the area spent the night sorting through the debris, grateful to have made it out alive.

“We couldn’t even see which way it was coming from. We couldn’t see anything. It just went white. Everything went white, explosions were happening. It was terrifying, it really was,” Jack Kruse, resident, said. “It was the most scary thing in my life, but thank God we are here, sound and alive.”

Volunteers will also be providing cleaning kits. In addition, the Pasadena Salvation Army is also providing food and help.

With the storm damage left behind in Deer Park, people who live here say it’s a miracle no one was killed.

One father said his son was trapped in his car right as the storm came through, and he held on to dear life when the airbags deployed.

Residents are sharing survival stories from the moments this tornado ripped through the heart of Deer Park.

The roof was ripped off an apartment and a woman was pinned down by a flying door. She was rescued by her neighbors.

Around the corner at a strip mall off Center Street, while a man huddled in a destroyed medical clinic with other patients, his teenage son was stranded in his car as the tornado threw chunks of metal and debris everywhere.

The city of Deer Park said they plan to rebuild and are just grateful everyone is OK. City facilities will be closed Wednesday as they evaluate the damage.

Some of the power lines are still down Wednesday morning leaving many families in the dark. At one point Tuesday, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Many of those customers have now had their power restored.

For a live look at the Entergy outage map.

When it comes to CenterPoint, there are about 21,000 customers still without power as of 6:30 a.m. Most of those families are around Pasadena and Deer Park.

CenterPoint said they’re deploying 24 crews to those areas to get the lights back on.

Here is their latest statement:

“Our crews worked overnight to safely restore service to more than 15,000 impacted customers across the greater Houston area. In the past 24 hours, CenterPoint Energy has been able to restore power to nearly 217,000 customers. As we complete our system damage assessments, we are finding significant damage to our infrastructure in those areas impacted by the tornado. Our crews are committed to restoring service to our customers as safely and quickly as possible.”