Storms and Tornadoes Hit East Texas, Killing Two Children

Two children were killed in Texas on Saturday as severe weather lashed parts of the South, with tornadoes tearing through homes and warnings of hail and flash floods.

The children, who were 3 and 8, were driving home with their parents on a rural county road near Pollok, Tex. — about 130 miles northeast of Houston — when a tree fell on their car, said Capt. Alton Lenderman of the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office.

The children, who were in the back seat, were pronounced dead at the scene.

“They were at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Captain Lenderman said. “The tree fell just as they were going under it.”

The National Weather Service said severe storms, and damaging wind and hail, hit many areas across the South, particularly from eastern Texas to western Alabama. There were multiple reports of tornadoes.

Photos of the storms’ destruction in Franklin, Tex., about 120 miles northwest of Houston, showed destroyed homes after a tornado. Personal belongings and pieces of wall and furniture were strewn everywhere, with trees scattered across the ground. About a dozen people were injured, though the injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, The Associated Press reported.

Reports of severe damage also emerged in Cherokee County, particularly at the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site. Local officials said dozens were injured there, according to KLTV, a local news station.

The site said on Facebook that it was “closed until further notice.”

“I’ve seen tornadoes but nothing like this,” Sheriff James E. Campbell of Cherokee County told the news station.

Jeremy Jackson, the chief of police in Alto, Tex., told KLTV that emergency rescue workers were making sure people were not trapped in houses.

In Angelina County, Captain Lenderman said that by Saturday evening, the storms had largely moved on. He said some power lines were knocked down and other trees felled.