A National Weather Service damage survey team confirmed on Tuesday that an EF-1 tornado with 95 mph winds touched down in Winona, TX on Monday morning.
On Monday, Smith County Fire Marshal Jay Brooks reported a tornado briefly touched down on the Winona High School football field at 10:36 am. The tornado caused damage to several houses and the high school. Power lines were also down in the area.
Smith County Precinct 4 Constable Josh Joplin said the tornado took down the fence perimeter of the city water tower and destroyed a modular building. It also threw football equipment from the football field into a nearby pasture. A portable building was lying in the middle of Johnson Road.
He said the tornado appeared to have spun up on Johnson Road, traveled across the Winona High School football field, over to Hussey Circle and moved north toward Big Sandy. He said there appeared to be quite a bit of damage in the Hussey Circle neighborhood.
“This probably is the only one I’ve seen that’s done this amount of damage in a short amount of time,” Constable Joplin said.
Brooks said the Winona ISD Police Chief saw the tornado briefly touch down, and the school was briefly placed on lockdown but was running on its regular schedule by 10:50 am.
