Destroyed vehicles sit in a Kenworth trailer lot after a tornado that swept through the area toppling many of the trailers on the lot Tuesday in Lancaster, Texas.
/ AP photo
JAMIE STENGLE and NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — Tornadoes tore through the Dallas area on Tuesday, tearing roofs off homes, tossing trucks into the air and leaving flattened tractor trailers strewn along highways and parking lots.
The National Weather Service reported at least two separate "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes south of Dallas and Fort Worth. Several other developing twisters were reported as a band of violent storms moved north through the metropolitan area. Officials had no immediate information about injuries.
Footage from highway video cameras showed a large, dark funnel cloud moving on the ground not far from a major interstate early Tuesday afternoon. Crumpled orange tractor trailers were later visible in a Dallas County parking lot, as well as flattened trailers along the sides of highways and access roads.
In one Dallas County neighborhood, local television footage showed homes without roofs while other buildings were flattened. Plywood was strewn on the grass and on top of buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.
The storm pushed cars into fences and toppled trees over. Branches and limbs were scattered across lawns and in the streets. A tow-behind RV was torn apart and crumpled in a driveway where part of a roof of the home was torn off.
"Obviously we're going to have a lot of assessments to make when this is done," Dallas County spokeswoman Maria Arita told The Associated Press.
Dallas Police spokeswoman Sherri Jeffrey said an apparent twister also touched down and caused damage within the city's southern limits, though the extent was not immediately known.
The weather service said "considerable damage" was reported near Cleburne, south of Fort Worth, and Lancaster, south of Dallas.
A spokeswoman for the Lancaster school district spokeswoman said officials did not immediately know of any damage to schools. Leslie Johnston, spokeswoman for Arlington Independent School District, in between Dallas and Forth Worth, said all schools there had students take sheltering and several schools reported power outages.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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