Severe storm outbreak batters Midwest and South, EF-3 tornado hits Texas town

The scale of the outbreak exposed a familiar vulnerability gap: large swaths of the Midwest and South were hit by repeated severe weather, but small towns such as Mineral Wells, Texas, had far less room to absorb the damage. Across April 23 to April 28, the National Weather Service logged more than 1,100 severe thunderstorm reports, including over 60 tornado reports, more than 500 wind reports and more than 500 large-hail reports, a pattern that left communities from Texas to Michigan dealing with destruction, injuries and deaths.

In Mineral Wells, a city of roughly 15,000 to 18,000 people about 80 miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth, a tornado hit around 5 p.m. Tuesday and tore through neighborhoods and business corridors. Officials said it flattened manufacturing buildings, ripped roofs off nearby homes and left large stretches of the city covered in debris. City leaders declared a local state of disaster as crews and survey teams moved in to assess the damage, while residents were told to stay away from the hardest-hit areas.

Five people were hospitalized after the storm, and later reports said some additional injured residents refused transport. Fire Chief Ryan Dunn said the injured were taken to a hospital for treatment. Mayor Regan Johnson said the city was grateful there was no loss of life in the Mineral Wells storm, a narrow outcome that underscored how close the tornado came to becoming much worse for a town with limited recovery capacity.

The National Weather Service initially said the tornado brought estimated winds of at least 120 mph. Later survey work upgraded the damage to an EF-3, with peak estimated winds around 145 mph. That intensity helps explain why some structures were described as a complete loss, with whole blocks left in disarray and businesses and homes stripped open by the force of the storm.

Mineral Wells was not the only Texas community hit hard. Runaway Bay, in Wise County, was struck by an EF-2 tornado on April 25 with peak winds of 135 mph, killing at least one person and injuring at least six others. Wise County Judge J.D. Clark said 40 families were displaced after that storm. The outbreak also produced additional deaths in North Texas over the weekend and one storm-related fatality in Michigan, widening the toll far beyond the hardest-hit tornado tracks.

For Mineral Wells, the immediate challenge now is not just clearing debris but piecing back together a small city that took a direct hit from a violent tornado while the broader outbreak continued to move across the Plains, Midwest and South.