Travel may be slowly returning to normal at Dallas' largest airport, but many people are still stranded after hail storms suspended service last night. NBC Dallas-Fort Worth says about 10,000 people got stuck when airport officials took tornado precautions and pulled passengers off planes.
DFW Airport spokesman David Magana said about 200 departures were canceled Tuesday night. He said cots were made available to passengers for flights that were canceled or diverted and concession areas stayed open throughout the night. Magana said flight operations were returning to normal Wednesday, although 90 flights were canceled.
Four direct flights were scheduled to travel from Dallas to Austin today. Three of them have been canceled, according to departures information on DFW’s website.
The insurance industry estimates as many as 350,000 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were hit by hail 1 ¾ inches or larger. Insurance Council of Texas spokesman Mark Hanna said in an email that agents “are being deluged with claims.”
“The overall loss from these storms will be significant,” he said.
The AP says the body of a man was found on top of debris outside an apartment complex in Dallas. The storm also forced 15,000 baseball fans at Rangers Stadium in Arlington to seek shelter in tunnels beneath the stadium, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Fans were ushered down onto the field and into the tunnels through the two dugouts, the bullpen and the equipment tunnel in left field. While some fans were still moving into the dugouts and tunnels, however, a heavy hail storm hit the park and officials moved to get fans back up into the stand and under overhangs to avoid injury.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted this video of hail hitting the ballpark.
Rev. Kory Knott of Argyle United Methodist Churchfilmed this tornado developing above his church.
