KATY, TX (Covering Katy News)—An EF1 Tornado struck Katy early Wednesday morning. It stayed on the ground for three to four minutes, destroying a sports bar, tearing apart a repair shop, tossing trees on houses, and knocking out electricity around Mason Road and Cimarron Parkway for hours.
The EF, or Enhanced Fujita scale, rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage it causes. EF 5 is the lowest rank, with EF 1 being the third highest.
EF Tornado Scale
"The National Weather Service estimate is there were winds upward of 90 miles per hour," said Jeff Evans, the NWS Meteorologist-In-Charge who came to Katy to survey the damage on Wednesday.
After the tornado struck the ground, it then went into the neighborhood near the Bourbon Street Sports Bar.
"Fortunately, when it got into the neighborhood behind us, it was much weaker, maybe 60 to 70 miles per hour winds," Evans said. He is the official who made the estimate of the tornado's windspeed and time on the ground.
"It sounded something like a freight train, and it started picking up, and that's when I was like, ' Okay, this is how I'm going to die,'" Cody Fitzgerald told Fox 26.
Fitzgerald was sleeping in his car. He woke up when the tornado lifted his vehicle.
"It picked up about two inches off the ground and then came down. That's what got me, and I was like, 'You know what? This is a tornado,'" Fitzgerald said.
There was plenty of damage but no reports of any deaths following the tornado strike, but nearby businesses had blown out windows and the manager of the Bourbon Street sports bar was on site when the tornado struck but had only minor injuries.
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The Firestone repair shop on South Mason Road near Cimarron Parkway.
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The Firestone repair shop following the tornado.
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The Bourbon Street Sport Bar following the tornado strike