'Tremendous damage' as tornadoes hit suburban Dallas

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By Miguel Llanos and Jim Gold, msnbc.com

Updated at 5:40 p.m. ET: At least two tornadoes touched down in areas south of Dallas on Tuesday, tossing tractor-trailers hundreds of feet into the air and causing widespread damage, especially in Lancaster and Arlington. No deaths were reported, but rescuers were still combing debris.

As the storm system moved northeast, it later spawned another tornado in Forney, a suburb just east of Dallas, where?the fire station?and several homes were hit and?the?high school saw roof damage, NBC News reported.

With the storms still moving through the region, many properties were damaged or destroyed and the Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport was hit by large hail, NBCDFW.com reported.

Dallas flights were shut down and travelers were taken to shelters as the storms passed. American Airlines canceled all its remaining flights Tuesday due inspect for hail damage.

One tornado hit the Flying J Truck Plaza in Dallas, tossing two trucks, said driver Michael Glennon, who caught the destruction on his video camera.

"The second trailer is ripped to pieces and thrown 50 to 100 feet into the air," Reuters quoted him as saying.

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"This is a serious situation," the NBC affiliate reported over the air at the height of the storms, as meteorologists showed live footage of "debris balls" in?Dallas, Ellis, Johnson and Tarrant?counties, where officials were trying to get a tally of injuries and damage.

Larry W. Smith / EPA

At least two tornadoes hit suburban communities in the Dallas area.

Live video showed a huge funnel cloud moving through a populated area as flashes of exploding power lines lit the sky. Vehicles were thrown across a major highway.

Large?trucks were seen being flung through the air. "There's lots of 18-wheelers," said?one NBC 5 reporter near Arlington. "I've never seen this before."

NBC

Damaged trucks and trailers are seen after a tornado pased through south Dallas on Tuesday.

Arlington's mayor declared a state of emergency,?and many homes there were destroyed or damaged, NBC 5's Mola Lenghi reported. A local?nursing home was hit hard, with one person hospitalized.

In Lancaster, NBC 5?reporter Ken Kalthoff said?"there's tremendous damage here."?At least a dozen homes were destroyed and 40 damaged, he said. More than 100 children and?adults inside a?daycare center there appeared safe but the building was heavily damaged.

Images, video of the tornadoes from NBCDFW.com

No deaths were reported but an undetermined number of people were injured, he added. Tornado sirens went off ahead of the touchdown.

A helicopter over South Dallas, Texas, catches a funnel cloud tearing through neighborhoods.

"People have stumbled out of their houses surprised they survived," reported Kalthoff, who saw the funnel cloud about a mile away.

The Lancaster High School and a large water tank barely avoided damage, he added.

Orange?tractor-trailers?filmed being flung in the air were from the operations yard for Schneider National. The Wisconsin-based trucking company said the yard saw "massive" damage, according to the Press?Gazette in Green Bay.

Lancaster resident Devlin Norwood was at home when he heard the storm sirens. He then made a quick trip to a nearby store when he saw the funnel-shaped tornado lower and kick up debris, the Associated Press reported.?

"I didn't see any damage until I got back home. We had trees destroyed, fences down, boards down, boards penetrating the roof and the house, shingles damaged," said Norwood.

Schools south of Dallas were locked down, NBC's Charles Hadlock reported, adding that one of the funnel clouds touched down?in the town of Red Oak.

At least 40,000 customers lost power in the storms, which also dumped hail the size of golf balls across the area.

In Dallas County, the storm pushed cars into fences and toppled trees. A motor home was torn apart and crumpled in a driveway where a home's roof was torn off.

Mobile homes and businesses?were destroyed or damaged in Kennedale and one person was hospitalized, the fire department said.

The massive Parks at Arlington mall along Interstate 20 shut down and management ordered shoppers and others into the basement, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Employees at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington?were moved into the tunnels, the newspaper said.

At DFW Airport, American Airlines?was having to?inspect 68 planes for hail damage. Thirty-seven American?flights were diverted and will stay in those cities overnight.

American Eagle Airlines, the world?s largest regional airline, diverted 11 flights, and 33 of its planes will be inspected.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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