Tornadoes touch down around Houston, killing 1

HOUSTON — At least one person has died and four more were injured as several tornadoes touched down in the Houston area on Saturday, damaging homes and flipping vehicles.

By Saturday afternoon, the storm system was moving east, into Louisiana, where tornado warnings were issued.

“These storms are probably going to get a lot worse this evening and overnight the further east you go,” said Josh Lichter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

One person died in the Liverpool area, located south of Houston, and four people suffered injuries that weren’t considered critical, said Madison Polston, spokesperson for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.

Polston said there were “multiple touchdown points” in the county between Liverpool and Hillcrest Village and Alvin. She said that so far they know of around 10 damaged homes but they are still working to determine the extent of the damage.

Lichter said on Saturday afternoon that it appeared that at least six tornadoes had touched down in the Houston area, though he said they may discover there were more when crews go out to survey the damage. He said there was damage in the area from both tornadoes and straight-line winds.

North of Houston, mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in Katy and Porter Heights, where the doors of a fire station were blown in, the weather service said.

The storms also caused departure delays of over an hour Saturday afternoon at Houston’s two main airports — Houston Bush Intercontinental and Houston Hobby, according to the website FlightAware.