Tornadoes Sweep Through Southwestern U.S.

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – At least 13 tornadoes swept along the New Mexico-Texas state line, destroying homes and other buildings and injuring several people, two of them critically, authorities said.

The worst damage from Friday's storms was in the towns of Logan and Clovis, which are about 80 miles apart, police said.

Clovis had a narrow path of damage about 3 mileslong, where several motor homes were destroyed, three schools were damaged and businesses had lost windows, police Lt. James Schoeffel said Saturday.

"There's lots of destruction," he said. "It's quite an extensive strip of damage."

The twister in Clovis also toppled power lines and sparked fires, Schoeffel said.

One of the tornadoes destroyed about two dozen mobile homes and campers in Logan, state police said.

By midday Saturday, the storms had weakened and moved across the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles into the central Plains.

Tornadoes are common in eastern New Mexico but they might have hit early this year, said Tim Shy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

"We normally would get the first one no later than the middle of April," he said.

Part of a highway near Clovis was closed because of downed power lines and debris, said Roosevelt County Emergency Management official Lonnie Berry.

Carrie Moritomo, a spokeswoman for the state's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said a crew was being sent to Logan on Saturday to assess the damage.

Only a handful of people went to a Salvation Army shelter set up at a high school gym in Clovis, so it was shuttered early Saturday and the people were sent to local hotels.

Five people from the Clovis area remained hospitalized Saturday morning, two of them in critical condition, Schoeffel said.

In Logan, three people were taken to a hospital, while others were treated at a local clinic, State Police Sgt. Andrew Tingwall said.