Texans "just glad to be here" after twisters
(CBS News) FORNEY, Texas - As many as a dozen tornadoes touched down as violent storms ripped through the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday, leaving widespread damage and destruction in their wake.
Incredibly, no deaths were reported, but hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged.
The storms were moving into the Mississippi Valley Wednesday morning.
As the twisters roared across north Texas, their power left even seasoned storm chasers in awe.
The force of the mid-afternoon outbreak was extraordinary, enough to suck up and spin back out huge tractor-trailers.
More than dozen hurt by Dallas-area tornadoes
"All I could say was, 'Jesus! Save me from this storm!"' one woman recalled.
"There was no question. It was coming straight for us," said one man.
The storms carved a wide path of destruction. Some homes were obliterated in a matter of seconds.
"Holy, moly - oh my God!" shrieked one resident of Forney, about 20 miles east of Dallas, as a huge funnel approached.
Another one whipped across Lancaster. "It's amazing that we're still living," one woman there said.
Michelle Miller was on the scene in Lancaster. To see her report, click on the video below:
"I was in the house," said one woman, "and it just sounded like a whole lot of big crackling noise and stuff. ...Next thing I know, when we opened the door later on, it was just a big disaster."
In Arlington, an entire wing of a nursing home came flying off, injuring two, and displacing more than 100.
At one school, a tree was left upside down. "You could just hear the walls shake and we just threw ourselves on top of the kids," one adult said.
Hundreds of flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where unusually large pellets of hail damaged more than 100 planes.
In neighborhoods, rescue workers went door-to-door, looking for victims, surveying the damage.
Sherry Enoch, was crying as she observed, "It's hard. But I'm just glad to be here." Her home was decimated, but she managed to escape alive, along with the three infants for whom she was babysitting.
"I went and jumped in the bathtub and put a comforter over us, and that was it," Enoch says.
Some injuries were reported, but when you see the video of the twisters, it's surprising it wasn't worse.
Some people we spoke with took cover as one tornado came within feet of carrying them away. They, like so many here, are thankful - and amazed that, given the force and devastation of the outbreak, no lives were lost.
To see Jeff Glor's report, click on the video in the player above.
"This is material things and it's sad, but we're OK and that's the main part," one said.
Thousands of customers were still without power Tuesday morning. But Wednesday's weather was expected to be calm.
