James Markle sorts through debris after high winds toppled a camper, shredded trees and demolished his 20x40ft outdoor shop housing several motorcycles and a Porsche, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, in Rosenberg.
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James Markle sorts through debris after high winds toppled a camper, shredded trees and demolished his 20x40ft outdoor shop housing several motorcycles and a Porsche, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, in Rosenberg.
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While living in Illinois, Markle’s property sustained damage on three separate occasions by tornadoes, “I must be magnetically attracted to bad weather,” he said. Much of Houston and the surrounding areas remained in a tornado warning for most of Valentine’s Day.
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While living in Illinois, Markle’s property sustained damage on three separate occasions by tornadoes, “I must be magnetically attracted to bad weather,” he said. Much of Houston and the surrounding areas remained in a tornado warning for most of Valentine’s Day.
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The Weather Channel was on site as quickly as the storms came and went.
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The Weather Channel was on site as quickly as the storms came and went.
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Storm damage in Fort Bend County in Rosenberg.
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Storm damage in Fort Bend County in Rosenberg.
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Winds were strong enough to bend a metal flagpole nearly to the ground.
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Winds were strong enough to bend a metal flagpole nearly to the ground.
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The blue tarp has become a familiar symbol of post-storm recovery to many Houstonians.
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The blue tarp has become a familiar symbol of post-storm recovery to many Houstonians.
In recent years, it seems that Houston is unable to let a holiday of any kind pass without experiencing some sort of freak weather incident, whether it’s Tax Day floods, Memorial Day floods or, now, Valentine’s Day tornadoes.
Beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, tornadoes were sighted near Wharton, where one quickly touched down with winds up to 85 miles per hour. Two additional tornadoes touched the ground within the next 40 minutes: an EF1 with winds up to 110 miles per hour in the Matagorda County town of Van Vleck, where six people were injured, and a final EF0 in Stafford, where many local businesses took the brunt of the storms.
Above, scenes from tornado damage in one residential neighborhood in Rosenberg show that the damage was not limited to just businesses.
