Mayor Issues Disaster Declaration for San Antonio After Tornadoes

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The mayor of San Antonio has issued a disaster declaration for the city of 1.4 million during cleanup after four tornadoes touched down in the area.

Mayor Ivy Taylor issued the declaration over twisters late Sunday and early Monday that emergency officials say damaged nearly 120 homes. Taylor says the declaration is the first step toward securing state and federal assistance.

Taylor made the declaration, plus called for volunteers to help with cleanup, after spending several hours Monday surveying damage. Roofs were torn off buildings, trees were downed and debris was strewn on streets.

San Antonio Fire Department officials say five minor injuries were reported.

Officials estimate that severe storms and tornadoes that pushed through Central Texas damaged at least 150 structures, most of them homes in the San Antonio area, late Sunday and early Monday. The National Weather Service has confirmed at least six tornadoes touched down, though not all in populated areas.

A survey team confirmed that a tornado with winds hitting 105 mph struck a residential area about 5 miles north of downtown San Antonio around midnight. Of the 43 homes damaged in the area, three fully collapsed, said San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Woody Woodward.

Another tornado briefly touched down about 5 miles northeast of San Antonio International Airport. Woodward had no reports of damage from that area, but photos show tall steel towers carrying high-voltage electric transmission lines toppled or buckled in half.

Citywide, he estimated that more than 100 structures were damaged.

Another 30 to 40 homes were damaged in two adjoining subdivisions about 10 miles northeast of downtown in Bexar County, where forecasters said a weak tornado left a roughly 11/2-mile track.

A dozen auto-carrier cars of a Union Pacific freight train were blown from their track northeast of Austin near the tiny town of Thrall, where at least two tornadoes touched down early Monday, according to Williamson County officials. The county said about 20 homes were damaged, and the local fire chief said several barns and outbuildings also were damaged.

At least one high-voltage transmission tower in northeastern San Antonio was bent in half.