After a week of storms flittering through, it didn’t seem like Sunday’s would be any different — until it was. Winds up to 71 miles per hour were clocked at Love Field, almost 300,000 were left without power, and a tragic crane collapse killed one and injured six more.
If you’ve never seen the Dallas city skyline go dark, you could’ve last night.
At press time, it wasn’t clear what kind of meteorological phenomenon had hit Dallas — we had at least two people tell us they believed they saw a tornado. The National Weather Service’s Fort Worth bureau said Sunday it would be a while before it was clear what happened.
“Higher elevation wind speeds, such as those impacting the toppled construction crane and some mid-rise or high-rise buildings, likely reached, or possibly exceeded 80-85 mph,” the NWS said. “However, it is difficult to pinpoint these wind maximum at this time.”
But just after Dallasites emerged from their homes after the quick but devastating storm, they just as quickly began helping each other. In neighborhood after neighborhood, neighbors helped each other clear trees from roads and yards, assess damage, check on each other, and round up lost pets.
But perhaps the most devastating turn of events was the collapse of a crane at the Elan in Deep Ellum that injured six and killed one.
Many caught the winds wreaking havoc downtown and shared their images and videos to social media.
Windows getting blown out downtown. #wfaa #wfaaweather pic.twitter.com/xjcpG4IPFH
— Matt Kirby (@matthew75201) June 9, 2019
Woke up poolside to a full-on tornado warning, which hit the construction site next to us and sent debris flying all over downtown Dallas. I think… I think I’m ready to come home now… pic.twitter.com/EN1HgcNOTg
— Rory Cashin (@roarEcashin) June 9, 2019
I got a video of the crane collapsing in Dallas. I hope everyone’s ok— it was terrifying to watch pic.twitter.com/SrC9Kwy2ur
— sophie daigle (@soph_daigle) June 9, 2019
And downtown wasn’t the only area to sustain damage, either.
Serious storm damage in Far North Dallas. Fretz Park Library with windows blown out. Huge trees down everywhere @CBSDFW @CBS11Sports @CBS11JeffJam pic.twitter.com/ReJ3YY2hXT
— Bret Kelly (@BKSpxshooter11) June 9, 2019
#wfaaweather Billboards down on Mockingbird, south of Love Field. @wfaa #dfwwx #Dallas pic.twitter.com/IpubHOYPXE
— Kelli Ann Pistokache (@KelliPistokache) June 9, 2019
We’ll have more on this story as updates are available.