EAGLE PASS, Texas – Crews scoured the mangled remains of houses and trailer homes Wednesday in the wake of tornadoes that killed at least 10 people in this border community and its Mexican neighbor. The storm killed two other people in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Twisters cut across a nearly 4-square-mile area in a rural community southeast of Eagle Pass late Tuesday night, destroying two empty elementary schools, a church, business and homes. Several mobile homes were still missing as searchers with dogs went lot to lot.
Authorities said all residents were accounted for. Maverick County Judge Jose Aranda said 50 to 200 families were left homeless.
A family of five – a girl, her parents and two other relatives – was killed when the winds blew their mobile home across the street and slammed it into Rosita Valley Elementary School.
“It was a whole family, and they were all together, probably like they were huddling,” said police Officer Ezekiel Navjas, who arrived Tuesday night just as crews were pulling from the wreckage the body of the girl, believed to be about 5 years old.
One of the dead was found in a house, and the other died after being taken to a San Antonio hospital, authorities said. More than 80 others were injured, and at least four remained in critical condition Wednesday.
Across the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, three people were killed and 300 homes were damaged.
Neither Eagle Pass nor Piedras Negras had a siren warning system like those used to help people evacuate ahead of the same storm when it flooded streets and peeled roofs off homes in North Texas. No injuries were reported there.
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