May 9, 2015: In this photo provided by Brian Khoury, a tornado touches down in Cisco, Texas. One person was killed Saturday night and another left in critical condition after the tornado hit Cisco, a rural farming and ranch area about 100 miles west of Fort Worth. (Brian Khoury via AP)
Emergency officials in Texas reported injuries and damage to homes after severe weather swept through a small town in the eastern part of the state, while two groups of people had to be rescued by helicopters from floodwaters in a north Texas town.
The National Weather Service received a report of a tornado near Van, in Van Zandt County, as severe thunderstorms passed through Sunday night. Van, a town with a population of around 2,500, is about 70 miles southeast of Dallas.
Van Fire Chief Jeff Hudgens says the city sustained "some significant damage" to "multiple homes" and says agencies are responding to confirmed injuries. He did not have any further details on the number of people hurt or the extent of their injuries. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
Meanwhile, Denton County Deputy Fire Marshal Marc Dodd said a Texas National Guard helicopter airlifted four adults and one infant on Sunday from the roof of their home near the city of Krum.
Dodd says another helicopter rescued two adults near the city of Sanger from the roof of their pickup truck, which video showed was surrounded by rushing water.
He says 10 others in the county had to evacuate their homes.
National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Staley says some locations in North Texas have gotten from six to seven inches of rain over the past four days.
Officials will be performing damage assessments in the area Monday.
Earlier Sunday, Denton County officials said that they believed a tornado passed through Denton, a city of around 110,000 around 40 miles northwest of Dallas. Jody Gonzalez, chief of Denton County Emergency Services, says the storm moved through the area so fast Sunday afternoon that it caused "very limited damage." He says some signs were blown over and some trees damaged. There were no reports of casualties.
Television footage showed portions of some industrial roofs ripped off. Elsewhere in the region, the storm played havoc with travel as Dallas airport officials said that more than 400 flights were canceled as a result of the storms while 42 others were diverted.
About 100 miles west of Fort Worth, people in the sparsely populated ranching and farming community of Cisco were left to clean up from Saturday's tornado that left one person dead and another in critical condition. Cisco Fire Department spokesman Phillip Truitt said the two people were near each other.
The National Weather Service said that tornado was rated an EF-3, with winds ranging from 136 to 165 mph. At least six buildings were damaged south of Cisco, as well as six others near Lake Leon, Truitt said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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