A strong frontal boundary made its way across Northeast Texas Friday night, spawning a tornado outbreak that wreaked havoc all across the region, including here in Bowie County. According to the National Weather Service in Shreveport, Damage assessments in our area have confirmed seven total tornadoes (1 EF-3, 3 EF-2, and 3 EF-1s) so far. Damage surveys will continue in all four of our states today. Those seven conformed tornadoes include the EF-3 that hit near Clarksville and continued for 58 miles on into McCurtain County, Oklahoma. It also includes the EF-2 that hit near Cason in Morris County, an EF-1 conformed near Pittsburg, and what is tentatively labeled as an EF-2 here in New Boston that had a 13.5 mile track. The ongoing damage assessments could change those reports in the coming days. As the storms fired up late Friday afternoon, the first tornadoes were seen to the southwest of Bowie County as tornadic winds created large swaths of destruction in several different towns including Hughes Springs, Cason, Clarksville and the Paris area.
In Bowie County, the tornadic storm first destroyed homes along 561 near Simms. Trees were toppled all over the area and many homes were extensively damaged. That storm then bounced over to Hwy 98 near the Telford Unit where it caused major damage to the Godley Prairie Community Church and then obliterating the businesses located at the junction of Hwy 98 and 1840, known as the crossroads. There at the crossroads, the hair salon operated by Connie Pinkham was totally scattered across the farms and fields behind it, and the Epperson Fireworks building was leveled as well.
Late Friday night a group of volunteers showed up to help Epperson load what was left of his business onto a truck. The next morning, Pinkham was at the site of what was left of her salon trying to sal-vage what she could from the wreckage. She told the Tribune, “I have just never seen anything like this.”
