‘Thankful to be alive’: Parts of North Texas report major damage from Saturday storms
Severe storms that brought large hail to parts of North Texas on Saturday, March 8, hospitalized four people, damaged homes and knocked down power lines and trees, officials said.
The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office said on social media that the storms caused significant damage in the area.
“Deputies have responded to multiple reports of overturned RVs and semi-trucks, downed trees and power lines as well as injuries sustained by residents due to damage to their homes,” the post reads.
Four people were taken to hospitals, but the extent of their injuries was unknown, Ellis County officials said in the post.
The Ennis Police Department later said that a 42-year-old man from Midlothian, identified by family members as T.J. Bailey, died from injuries following the storm, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV reported. Bailey lived in an RV near the Texas Motorplex. His wife was hospitalized but is expected to survive, WFAA reported.
The Cleburne area received large amounts of hail. A video shared with the National Weather Service shows hail falling furiously outside a home off Park Road 21.
Elsewhere in Johnson County, part of Texas 174 was closed due to power lines down on the highway, the county’s emergency manager said on social media. It’s estimated that winds greater than 75 miles per hour affected the southeast portion of the county.
A photo on the emergency manager’s post shows a pile of twisted metal on a concrete slab — all that’s left of a home after the walls and roof collapsed. A child’s blue scooter can be seen in the foreground.
“This is our home, we are so thankful to be alive,” a woman said in the comment section.
Another person posted that their whole house in the Joshua area shook violently during the storm.
A man’s mobile home was reportedly destroyed near Grandview.
The American Red Cross will provide assistance to those whose homes were affected by the storms, officials said on social media.
Matt Stalley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Fort Worth, confirmed no tornadoes occurred during the storms. Some isolated areas experienced straight-line winds between 80 and 90 mph, Stalley said.
Over 6,500 Oncor customers were without power around 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Over 5,000 of those were in Ellis County. Around 350 outages were reported in Tarrant County and nearly 600 in Dallas County.
Oncor officials said they were “actively responding to outages.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 2:03 PM.
