Thousands left powerless as tornadoes smash Texas

Thousands of residents were without power and hundreds of flights were cancelled as authorities surveyed the damage yesterday a day after up to a dozen tornadoes struck the densely populated Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.

Hundreds of homes and businesses sustained significant damage in the storm as hail, high winds, and rain ripped through the area, tossing tractor-trailer trucks into the air and injuring at least 17 people. Many of the 6.3 million area residents were forced to scramble for safety as the storm bore down, when schools and workplaces were still open in the fourth most populous US metropolitan area.

The early warning for the storm – the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was tracking it for more than an hour before it reached there – enabled people to get to safety, officials said.

About 22,000 homes and businesses remained without power yesterday from Texas to Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Some 420 American Airlines and American Eagle flights in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had been cancelled, said Tim Smith, a company spokesman. There were 66 American planes and 26 American Eagle planes out of service, Mr Smith said.

About 1,400 people slept in airport terminals on Tuesday night after the storms and an as yet undetermined number of passengers stranded by cancelled flights were directed to hotels.