Tornadoes roar through Jack County

As many as three tornadoes may have touched down in Jack County overnight Wednesday, but no injuries were reported.

Jack County Emergency Management Coordinator Frank Hefner spent much of Thursday morning assessing damage and filing reports with the National Weather Service. He said he has evidence on the ground that at least one of the tornadoes touched down on the east side of the county.

“The National Weather Service has not come yet and made their assessment but we had damage spread around the county,” Hefner said. “We had no injuries in the county which is good because that easily could be different.”

Hefner said many of the tornadoes went through land that was not inhabited. There was damage to one residence, a manufactured cabin, which was pushed off its foundation.

Laura Bowen, who lives south of Jacksboro, said all three of the potential tornadoes came through her land, two of them were “super close.”

“We had damage to a bunch of trailers and barns,” Bowen said. “At times it was raining and hailing so hard, we didn’t hear the warnings. We barely had time to react before it hit. If I hadn’t been on the phone, ain’t no telling what would have happened.”

Bowen said she had seen smaller storms do more damage and was just glad no one was hurt.

Hefner said he had also heard of some uprooted trees in the Senate area. Hefner said the first tornado came from the Stephens/Palo Pinto area around 8 p.m. followed by another one out of Young County around 9:30 p.m. and a third one in the overnight hours around 3:30 a.m.

Hefner said not all of the county fire departments were toned out during the tornadoes. The tornadoes gave the county a chance to test its Hyper reach system. Hefner said the resident notification system “worked flawlessly.”

The storm warning system worked great,” Hefner said. “Matter of fact, between the second and third storm, it woke me up and sent me back to work.”

Robert Ostrander said the rain was “ankle deep” in his yard. He and his family spent much of the night in the family’s tornado shelter. He said they had used it five or six times since it was built four years ago.

“We had 10 family members in it last night,” Ostrander commented. “Even if we just used it once it was worth the money to me.”