Texas Slammed By Storms: No Tornadoes, But Tornado-Like Damage

Severe winds in thunderstorms make
pedestrians struggle in downtown Dallas.
Photo by Louis DeLuca, Dallas Morning News.  

Storms in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area on Thursday proved that thunderstorms without tornadoes can still be as bad as those twisters.   

Windspread winds that reached over 80 mph in some places ripped roofs from buildings, collapsed a couple more and cut power to at least 250,000 people.

In Fort Worth, in the Stockyards section, the back wall of a hotel collapsed, showering bricks over a bunch of parked cars. Amazingly, nobody was seriously hurt.

A roof also blew off a building at Arlington Baptist College and smashing windows sprayed glass onto young women in a dormitory. Some suffered cuts, but they weren't severely injured.

Here's a video of camera crews struggling with the storm in Dallas:



And here's the storm blasting through an Arlington, Texas neighborhood: