16 Killed as Tornadoes Plow Through Central Texas

JARRELL, Texas — Violent storms ripped through four central Texas counties from Waco to Austin on Tuesday, tossing cars, leveling an entire subdivision and leaving at least 16 people dead and scores injured.

A tornado killed 14 people in Jarrell, a small town 40 miles north of Austin, where all 20 homes in the Double Creeks Estate were destroyed.

“It’s not there anymore,” said Sheriff’s Deputy R.B. Raby. “I don’t know of anything anyone can do. It’s just a flat, vacant field.”

Bits of clothing hung from barbed-wire fences and a tractor-trailer lay on its back in the middle of a field. Hearses trickled in Tuesday evening as rescue workers began retrieving bodies. Three of the town’s residents were hospitalized in critical condition.

In Austin, one person was killed when a tornado destroyed two homes around Lake Travis, and a woman drowned in a creek during a storm, city spokesman Carlos Cordova said.

The storms began in Bell and McLennan counties, about 60 miles north of Jarrell, about 3:45 p.m. and moved into Williamson County just north of Austin.

Interstate 35, the main north-south freeway in Central Texas, was closed around Jarrell.

Elsewhere in Williamson County, part of a grocery store’s roof was blown off, causing the building to collapse. At least eight people were hurt and one was missing in the rubble, said county spokesman John Sneed.

In Bell County, a tornado destroyed a marina and at least five boats. Several houses also were reported destroyed, but no injuries were confirmed.

Jarrell, a town of less than 1,000 people, was largely destroyed by a tornado in 1989 that killed one and injured 28. That storm also severely damaged or destroyed 35 homes and 12 mobile homes.

“This is worse,” said Janine Brock, a lifelong resident. “It’s going to be awful. They’re going to have to bury so many people.”