KATY, Texas – A powerful EF-1 tornado touched down in the early morning hours Wednesday doing severe damage to several businesses in the Katy area, which is about 30 miles west of downtown Houston.
The National Weather Service confirmed maximum sustained winds around 90 mph.
Firefighters were called to a Firestone Complete Auto Care around 3 a.m. as a large storm system swept across southeast Texas. The lobby of the building had collapsed, but the garage was intact.
A local sports bar next door to the Firestone building had all its windows blown out when the tornado hit. Emergency responders told Houston NBC affiliate KPRC 2 three employees who had just closed the bar for the night were still working in the back at the time.
Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Mark Donovan said he was driving around the area due to reports of down trees when he rode up on the damaged businesses.
“Fortunately this business was closed,” he said. “The bar had just closed for the night. Staff was on site but fortunately, they were at the back of the building. They were not struck by any of the debris.”
“The windows were blown out and they had some roof damage,” Donavan added. “It looks like some debris from outside went into the structure.”
Around 6 a.m. Wednesday, CenterPoint Energy was called to turn off gas and power in the area until debris has been cleared.
During the assessment, a CenterPoint Energy employee suffered a minor electrical shock and was treated and released at the scene.
The severe weather also downed trees and fences in a nearby neighborhood in the Katy area called Nottingham Country. The trees blocked roads and damaged cars and several homes.
The same storm system dropped several inches of rain in parts of east Texas and spawned a tornado in Lake Charles, Louisiana that was confirmed by the National Weather Service.
As the storms continued to track east, damaging winds were also reported in parts of Alabama and the Florida panhandle.