Sirens sounded late Thursday night in Princeton as National Weather Service radar indicated a possible tornado approaching Princeton from the west.
There were no reports that it touched down, but several residents reported wind, hail or lightning damage and many neighborhoods lost power.
Michael Stiltz, deputy fire chief – operations, said there was roof damage reported and a lightning strike caused a structure fire on the north side of the city. Some power lines were knocked down by broken tree limbs, he said.
Texas-New Mexico Power reported 1,221 customers, mostly around Princeton High School, were affected and service might not be restored until evening, said Tenishea Turner, Princeton director of community engagement.
Oncor Electric Delivery reported 26 outages in Princeton with no estimate when service would be back, she said.
“Hardest hit areas include our northern regions, such as Sherman, Denison, Paris, and Sulphur Springs and our eastern regions, such as Van Zandt, Smith and Cherokee counties, where excessive tree damage and toppled trees and branches have significantly impacted electric equipment,” Oncor said on its website. “As restoration progresses, additional crews are being deployed from across our service area to support work in these locations.”
Katy Brinley Boyles said she had lost a large tree in her yard.
“Lightning split it down the center and now the majority of it is in the street and the driveway next door!” she wrote.
“At Walmart 380 they shut down and got us all in the back of the store,” wrote Kim Mosher Fain.
Alicia Torres posted, “Came from Gainesville down to Prosper, hit McKinney and down 380 to Princeton; went over Lowry Crossing toward Josephine and died out.”
On the way, the storm damaged Cowboy Church of Collin County, located south of the city on FM 3364.
Independent Financial in Lavon had its entire bank of drive-thru lanes destroyed, splitting off from the building. The structure also suffered damage with part of the siding breaking off along with cracks in the roof.
Nearby, there were signs of damage on the overhang for a RaceTrac gas station with a piece of siding hanging down. Just up the street, a single power line was standing diagonally, out of line with others nearby.

Connor Pittman contributed to this story