Tornado Strikes Texas Town

A storm system moving across the South spawned a tornado Saturday that struck a Texas down and caused severe damage. At least seven people were injured in Franklin, population 1,600, where trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off buildings, per USA Today and CNN. Local officials tell KWTX that power lines were felled, cars overturned, and a stench of natural gas filled the air. Meanwhile, hail bigger than baseballs landed north of San Antonio and another twister hit Alto, East Texas, leveling two homes and downing trees. More than 96,000 Texas power customers had no electricity by afternoon, per poweroutage.us.

The storm system is likely to unleash more destruction including heavy thunderstorms, large hail, high winds, and more tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama—and could wreak havoc at the Masters golf tournament in Georgia on Sunday. "Sunday will bring the risk of more general thunderstorms" in the eastern part of the South, "and any storm could bring severe weather conditions with frequent lightning strikes, torrential downpours and strong wind gusts," meteorologist Alex Sosnowski tells AccuWeather. But he says that the morning should be rain-free, "so it might be advantageous to start early." (More storm stories.)