More than 100 homes were damaged Monday afternoon after tornadoes ripped through Harris County, Texas, Constable Mark Herman said in a Facebook post.
No serious injuries or deaths have been reported after the storms, said Brian Murray, spokesperson for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Earlier, authorities were combing through the debris searching for residents who may have been trapped or injured after the storm passed.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday confirmed two tornadoes struck the county, one in the Riata Ranch area, where winds reached 110 mph, and a second in the Klein area, with estimated winds of 116 mph.
The twisters were about 20 minutes apart.
Severe storms developed in the Houston area on Monday afternoon, where warm temperatures were in place ahead of a cold front. An unstable atmosphere combined with wind shear produced supercell thunderstorms, which resulted in several tornado reports.
The constable called the storms a “severe weather event” that caused “widespread and significant damage.”
Trees ‘snapped like toothpicks’
The Harris County Emergency Services campus was also in the path of one of the tornadoes, and it ripped the roof and back wall off a maintenance building, spokesperson Miranda Sevcik told reporters at the scene.
Two men were working in the building at the time and one held on to a rack, while the other ducked under a table as the tornado touched down, Sevcik said.
“You can imagine how terrified they were, but they were just fine at the end of it,” she said.
No one on the campus was injured, she added.
Large tree trunks on the campus “snapped like toothpicks” during the twister, Sevcik said.
She was in another building when the tornado tore through and was told to go to the designated area for severe weather.
“What sounded like hail turned out to just be the shutters dropping, and then all of a sudden, you could feel the pressure drop, and then it just got really, really quiet,” Sevcik described. “It went by very, very fast. And then we opened the doors, thankfully …and we saw the damage. We’re like, ‘oh, my gosh,’ just like matchsticks.”
Footage captures magnitude of destruction
Drone video of the destruction revealed the extent of the damage, which included torn-off rooftops and debris strewn across yards and pools.
Photos posted by the Cy-Fair Fire Department also showed shattered windows, broken fences, damaged roofs, and debris scattered through the area.
Residents are urged to avoid traveling if possible, as there is widespread debris and downed power lines in the impacted neighborhoods, Harris County officials said in another post.
“Our priority is the safety of our residents,” Herman said a post. “We are using every resource available to locate the injured, secure the area, and support our community through this emergency.”
CNN’s Briana Waxman and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.