EF0 Tornado Hits South of Ballinger

Last night we alerted area residents to a storm northeast of San Angelo in Runnels County. Alerts and warnings came in during the newscast reporting a tornado on the ground between Rowena and Ballinger. On Tuesday a National Weather Service team went to assess the damage. Roger Gass reports. Some Runnels County residents are picking up the pieces after a tornado late Monday night left a path of destruction. Rex Cook, tornado victim said, "We were in the house, and the wind and stuff was coming from the west side and hail and stuff was hitting the west side. Then all of the sudden it was hitting on the east side and we knew we were in some trouble then.” Rex Cook says his family was safe and his home was spared, however he lost a few of his livestock and had plenty of damage to his barn and stock pins. A few hundred yards away, Cook’s Neighbor Todd Virden, experienced similar wreckage as the violent winds from the tornado knocked over his tracker trailer. Todd Virden told KSAN, “We didn’t even know it to start with. We did not know it was coming. We were in the house fixing to go to bed, watching the news and the electricity went out and it got real loud. “ Buddy McIntyre from the Nation Weather Service says, "Most of the damage has been fairly weak. It has been to out buildings, to metal roofing have been blown off an overturned an 18-wheeler truck. Maybe wind speeds; we are guessing right now or estimating right now around 75 mph or so. “ Buddy McIntyre and his team of meteorologist from the National Weather Service spent several hours surveying the damage to determine the track of the tornado. Buddy McIntyre said, “From what we have seen so far it looks like the damage path is about a mile and a half long stretching from the west north west to the east south east and the damage path looks to be maybe a half mile wide." A path that was carved in what seemed like an instant. “It did not last that long. I mean by the time we realized what happened it was over with," said Rex Cook.