LAGUNA HEIGHTS, Texas (SONNA) \u2014 One person was killed and a curfew was imposed after a powerful tornado\u00a0tore through a community near the southern tip of Texas before dawn Saturday, damaging dozens of residences and knocking down power lines, authorities said.<\/p>\n
At least 10 others were hospitalized, including two people who were listed in critical condition, said Tom Hushen, the emergency management coordinator for Cameron County. Many residents also suffered cuts and bruises.<\/p>\n
A nighttime curfew for those 17 and under was issued by Eddie Trevi\u00f1o Jr., the Cameron County judge, and is expected to end May 16 to \u201cmitigate the effects of this public health and safety emergency.\u201d The order also forbids non-residents of Laguna Heights from entering its residential areas.<\/p>\n
The tornado hit at about 4 a.m. as most people were in their homes asleep in the unincorporated community of Laguna Heights, located on the mainland across from South Padre Island, off the Gulf of Mexico. The county has among the highest poverty rates in Texas and is dotted with substandard housing.<\/p>\n
There was no advance warning. Instead, the first warning of a tornado \u201cwent out at the same time it was touching ground,\u201d said Barry Goldsmith, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Brownsville.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith hurricanes we have the benefit of getting some advance warning; we know it\u2019s probably on its way,\u201d Trevi\u00f1o said during a Saturday press conference. \u201cWith a tornado, like Barry mentioned, it\u2019s not a common scenario unless we have a hurricane\/tropical cyclone in the area. So, we didn\u2019t have the benefit of a warning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hour didn\u2019t help,\u201d Trevi\u00f1o added.<\/p>\n
Roberto Flores, 42, died after being \u201cbasically crushed as a result of the damage to his mobile home,\u201d Trevi\u00f1o said.<\/p>\n
The storm was clocked with wind speeds of 86-110 mph (138-177 kph) and was categorized as an EF1 tornado, according to the weather service. It lasted only about two to four minutes but it ravaged the area.<\/p>\n
LAGUNA HEIGHTS, Texas (SONNA) \u2014 One person was killed and a curfew was imposed after a powerful tornado\u00a0tore through a community near the southern tip of Texas before dawn Saturday, damaging dozens of residences and knocking down power lines, authorities said. At least 10 others were hospitalized, including two people who were listed in critical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":416781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-416780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416782,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416780\/revisions\/416782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}