April 21, 2007
Tulia, Texas
Photo of tornado damage in downtown Tulia
CACTUS – Downed power lines, flattened houses and roads littered with debris kept most residents from returning home Sunday in this rural Panhandle town hit hardest by an apparent group of tornadoes.
Officials said at least 14 people were injured, including one critically, during severe storms late Saturday that knocked out power to about 20,000 customers in the region.
About 50 people were still unaccounted for in Cactus on Sunday, Moore County Judge Rowdy Rhoades said. He believes all of them are safe and likely evacuated after hearing tornado sirens in this mostly poor city, home of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant raided by federal immigration officials in December.
"There are no fatalities – you can bank on that," Rhoades said.
Town leaders held an emergency meeting Sunday evening and issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew to "cut back on any type of looting," Rhoades said.
Officials said at least 14 people were injured, including one critically, during severe storms late Saturday that knocked out power to about 20,000 customers in the region.
About 50 people were still unaccounted for in Cactus on Sunday, Moore County Judge Rowdy Rhoades said. He believes all of them are safe and likely evacuated after hearing tornado sirens in this mostly poor city, home of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant raided by federal immigration officials in December.
"There are no fatalities – you can bank on that," Rhoades said.
Town leaders held an emergency meeting Sunday evening and issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew to "cut back on any type of looting," Rhoades said.
