HOUSTON – The National Weather Service confirms an EF-1 tornado briefly touched down in southwest Houston on Thursday during a wave of tornadoes across Texas.

A small but strong tornado caused isolated damage in the Meadows Place neighborhood at Kirkwood Road and Bissonnet Street.

Wind speeds exceeded 90 miles per hour, according to a National Weather Service survey.

Several homes along Plumbrook Drive were damaged, but one was severely damaged. The home belongs to Tanrita Johnson, a single mother of six.

“If you look at all the damage: the garage door was gone, the windows were missing, the roof collapsed. It’s kind of hard to watch,” she told KRPC 2’s Gage Goulding. “It could have been worse. Lives could have been lost.”

Johnson was not home when the tornado touched down around 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Actually, no one was home. Not even the family dog.

Tanitra Johnson: “It’s a blessing to still have my children.”

Gage Goulding: “Are all the what-ifs going through your head? What could have happened?”

Tanitra Johnson: “Yes, because I thought: What if I was home? I probably would have tried to run out because the windows were coming in to see what was going on.”

The neighbor’s security cameras captured the tornado moving through the neighborhood.

A few houses away, a surveillance camera captured the moment a USPS mail truck was overturned while the postal worker was still inside.

Luckily the person was okay and was able to climb out.

“The safety and well-being of our employees is of the utmost importance to the U.S. Postal Service,” a USPS spokesperson said. “In the case of the most recent weather-related incident that occurred on December 27, we can report that the USPS employee is safe and recovering. The mail vehicle was picked up, secured and taken to the local post office. Additionally, mail was immediately restored and the Postal Service took measures to ensure timely delivery of all shipments. We value and value our dedicated employees. The USPS will continue to closely monitor weather conditions and take steps to protect both our employees and the mail they handle.”

It’s this video and other signs that helped the National Weather Service figure out what happened here.

“There is evidence of some distortion,” said Lance Wood, Office of Science and Operations at the National Weather Service. “So this really looks like a quick touchdown and then that’s it.”

Wood was working on radar Thursday as the NATO Weather Service issued tornado warnings.

However, a small, fast but powerful tornado like this can sometimes slip under the radar.

Gage Goulding: “Was this cell warned or not?”

Lancewood: “NO. We issued a major weather warning because we knew we were monitoring the weather very closely, but there was no tornado warning for this particular cell. I think it just happened too quickly.”

Just as quickly, the new dilemma Tanitra faces emerges: Where will she and her children sleep tonight?

“I really need help,” she said.

The American Red Cross was on site today to assess the damage and offer assistance. They focused on their home, which was the most damaged.

“It’s going to take a while to get it done,” Johnson said. “So I have to do something.”