Look at the damage left behind by severe storms, tornadoes that ripped through Houston area

01:46

First glimpses of tornado damage near Houston

Buildings collapsed and tractor trailers overturned are all too familiar sights in the Houston Metro area Tuesday afternoon.

HOUSTON – The National Weather Service in Houston issued a Tornado Emergency for the first time in the office's history Tuesday for a twister that tore the southeast side of the Houston metro area.

The tornado was reported by both spotters and was confirmed by radar, according to NWS officials. Reports of tornadoes traveled east into the evening in Louisiana.

Pictures and videos show the damage that was left behind. 

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Tornado damage in the Houston Metro area.

(Brian Kelly / FOX Weather)

"Holy crap. I've got a tornado on the ground right in front of me," said storm chaser Brad Arnold. "People are driving right into it. Hold on, it's going to get wild."

Arnold ordered the driver to stop and pull over as a large tornado crossed the road before them in Taylor Landing, Texas near Beaumont.

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02:18

Watch as large tornado crosses road in Taylor Landing, Texas

Storm chaser captures a tornado rolling across Highway 73 in Taylor Landing, Texas. (Credit: Brad Arnold, LSM)

In the afternoon, winds blew over a tractor-trailer on one of the Houston's major interstates. 

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Damage along Houston's Interstate 45 on Jan. 24, 2023. 

(Brandon Copic / Live Storms Media / FOX Weather)

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The tempest tried to toss a truck over the median on the Beltway in Pasadena, Texas.

Crews had to close several lanes of the Beltway outside of Houston to clear a big-rig that landed on the median.

(@lwdwg25 / Twitter / FOX Weather)

Residents of Pasadena, a suburb on the southeast side of Houston, found buildings torn and pieces of them scattered across parking lots as they emerged from their shelters.

"In my 25 years here, this is probably the worst damage I've seen," said a police official at a press conference in Pasadena. "Just catastrophic."

He said one person was hurt.

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Winds damaged the Pasadena Animal shelter, said Pasadena police. A couple of dogs were injured. The shelter moved all 70 animals to another facility for safety.

Storm chaser Jacob Hale was one of the first to photograph some of the Pasadena damage.

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Large pieces of debris from homes are scattered and power lines are downed across the Pasadena, Texas area following a tornado. 

(Jacob Hale / FOX Weather)

"I haven't seen anything like this before, especially in our area. And, you know, you got to remember, we're used to hurricanes down here," said 20 year veteran Houston Fire Department Captain Ryan Lee. "So, yeah, the houses are built for hurricanes. Obviously, you can't build much for tornadoes when it comes to the house." 

Winds knocked over a semi near Pasadena.

(Jacob Hale / FOX Weather)

"That debris ball looked to be at least a mile to a mile and a half wide," said FOX Weather's Ian Oliver.

Radar can show solid objects are lofted into the air. Meteorologists call the signature a debris ball.

A storm spotter reported several injuries in Deer Park after winds blew trees onto homes and cars. Emergency crews came en masse to attend to residents.

Medical crews on the scene of tornado damage in the Houston Metro area.

(FOX Weather)

Lee said that those are busses that can transport up to 17 patients. He told FOX Weather that a large ambulance transported several residents from a damaged nursing home to a hospital.

Shocked residents started the monumental chore of cleaning up when the wind and rain subsided in the Houston Metro area.

Trees and power lines littered roads in the area. Nearly 120,000 customers lost power just after the storm.

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00:18

Downed power lines, damaged trees outside of Houston

Storm damage on Center Street in Deer Park, a suburb of Houston. Tornado Watches and Warnings were issued in the Houston area on Tuesday as a severe storm swept through the area. (Courtesy: Code Breaker)

Before sunset, the media took an aerial tour. Some homes and buildings were flattened. Overhead, a roof was missing, and we could look into rooms.

02:59

Aerial tour of tornado damaged Houston suburb

An overhead view of the Pasadena and Deer Park communities shows a path of homes and businesses were leveled by a tornado.

A Pasadena home lost a second-floor bedroom.

Houston home loses portion of its roof during storm on January 24, 2023.

(@Rangel_WX / Twitter / FOX Weather)

Near Deer Park, Texas, a bank drive-through was ravaged as tornadic winds squeezed through, stripping the roof.

Gas station canopies were no match for the storm.

The videographer said, "Totally destroyed this gas station."

00:22

'Totally destroyed this gas station,' Texas tornado damage

Deer Park, Texas was hit hard. Winds blew away a gas station canopy. The person taking the video said, "Totally destroyed this gas station."

In some areas, 2-5 inches of rain fell, according to radar estimates. Panicked parents rushed to pick their kids up from school and had to drive through a river. Watch the wake of a passing car wash over the hood of the photographer's car.

The parent Tweeted, "This isn't even the worst of it, I just couldn't tape anymore."

The Texas Department of Transportation wasted no time blocking off flooded underpasses. This was in Wayside.

00:23

Trucks make their way through flooded roadway in Houston

Houston Department of Transportation in Houston captured video of vehicles driving through floodwater in the neighborhood of Wayside. January 24, 2023. (Courtesy: @TxDOTHouston / Twitter)

An intrepid driver managed to keep going down the road during the height of the storm's intensity in a Tornado Warning. He was one of the few left on the road. Take a look at the line of cars that pulled off to wait it out.

Storm chasers followed the line of storms into Louisiana in the failing daylight after sunset.

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