By
The Associated Press
Several tornadoes ripped through the states of Texas and Louisiana as a powerful storm, which dumped heavy snowfall on California, moved east of the country, knocking out power to thousands of people on Thursday and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights to or from the dallas city.
Tornado watches issued for the cities of Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding areas in Texas expired late in the afternoon, but strong winds and hail continued, according to the National Weather Service.
["I've lived in California for 30 years and I've never seen anything like it": blizzard warning issued for southern state]
About 100 miles east of Dallas, a tornado that touched down near the small town of Fouke was moving northeast at 55 mph toward the city of Texarkana, authorities said.
Meanwhile, another tornado touched down near Louisiana State University in the city of Shreveport.
Nearly 190,000 Texas customers had lost power as of Thursday, the monitoring site poweroutage.us reported.
Large areas of Texas face severe weather danger
March 3, 202300:26
More than 400 flights have been canceled
, with origin or destination to the international airports of Dallas-Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field, reported the FlightAware.com site.
And several school districts, including those in Dallas and Fort Worth, canceled extracurricular activities and events because of the severe weather.
[Large parts of Texas face severe weather danger]
“This is the same system that hit California and now it's in New Mexico, it's going to cross Texas and then Arkansas
,” explained Rich Thompson, senior meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Strong winds and large hail pose the greatest threats, he warned.
This storm brought “once-in-a-generation” snowfall to California and Oregon, with accumulations of up to seven feet (2 meters) in some areas, forecasters said.
The amount of snow reported will help reduce, and in some areas eliminate, California's drought conditions.