Posted on 05/06/2006 6:46:27 PM PDT by sully777
For the second consecutive weekend, severe storms caused heavy damage in the Waco area, snapping trees, knocking down power lines and leaving significant parts of Waco in darkness, prompting the mayor to declare parts of Waco disaster areas.
Striking between 12:30 and 1 this morning, the storm destroyed the roof at one of the apartment buildings at Ashton Oaks, 5100 Hawthorne Drive, forcing at least a dozen residents to take refuge elsewhere.
Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy signed a disaster declaration this morning that she said is necessary to “mobilize and help bring in state resources.”
“We’re grateful no one was hurt,” she said. “That’s the good news, as far as we know.”
The bad news: traffic signals out causing traffic problems, neighborhoods without power, residents displaced, including about 15 families at the Ashton Oaks just off Sanger Avenue where high winds ripped off the roof of an apartment building. Damage was also reported at the Four Seasons Apartments nearby.
Shortly after the mayor’s announcement at Waco City Hall, rain began to fall again. Thunderstorms are forecast through the weekend and into early next week.
National Weather Service meteorologists are not yet sure if Saturday’s storms in Waco, Valley Mills and Crawford resulted in tornadic activity or straight-line winds, said NWS meteorologist Jennifer Dunn.
A team of NWS experts left Fort Worth shortly after 9 a.m. to investigate some of the local damage fields in order to make that determination.
Whether the storms that raged late Friday and into the early Saturday hours are labeled a tornado or not, Dunn said that wind speeds reached dangerous levels. The meteorologist cited one reading at New Road and Interstate 35 that gauged the wind at 87 mph.
Sirens wailed throughout the Waco area, sending many residents into hallways and closets for safety.
“When we heard the tornado sirens, we huddled in the hall and, believe me, it’s hard to get my husband to huddle anywhere,” said Shirley Bynum of Woodway.
She and her husband Larry Bynum, who live on Cardinal Drive, spent this morning cutting an oak tree off their 2005 Chevrolet Impala. The damaged vehicle was the least of their worries.
“We think the car’s a total loss but I’m really upset about our oak trees. We lost five of them last night,” Shirley Bynum said.
After the storm, city crews swung into action, including a crew that hauled a trailer of stop signs from one intersection to the next, erecting signs where traffic lights had gone out. Meanwhile, firefighters responded to calls, including Ashton Oaks apartments.
About a dozen businesses along Franklin Avenue, including Freddie Kish’s Complete Car Care Center at 5300 Franklin Ave. and the Coca-Cola bottling plant at 5100 Franklin Ave. sustained damage. A Chevron gas station at State Highway 6 and Bagby Avenue had major damage.
The bottling plant appeared to be the hardest-hit location on Franklin Avenue between New Road and Highway 6. Most of the roof was ripped away and a portion of the building collapsed. Concession-style trailers stored behind the building were flipped upside down and debris was scattered all over the area. Metal sheeting on the side of the business was buckled and torn away. Hundreds of bottles of Vault soda littered the parking lot; a front-end loader was scooping them up by late this morning.
Next to the bottling plant, electronics store Padgitt’s deceptively appeared in good shape. Owner Chris Schroeder said he got to the store about 3:30 a.m. and initially thought his business had escaped the storm. He was wrong.
“As I walked from the front to the back of the store, things got progressively worse. The roof was taken off pretty much the whole back of the building,” Schroeder said.
High-end merchandise already sold for commercial jobs and stored near the rear of the building was mostly destroyed, he said.
He estimated damage to the business he bought two years ago as several hundred thousand dollars.
The RoomStore at 5400 Franklin Ave. lost only its front sign. “It just skipped right over us,” said manager James Lykins.
Stacy Schmitt, vice president for public affairs for Time Warner Cable in Waco, said the company’s offices at 215 Factory Drive. behind Padgitt’s, had only minimal damage. Some satellite dishes were blown from towers but fiber optic cables were undamaged. Early today, she said, about 15,000 to 20,000 customers appeared to be without cable service but it was unclear how much of that was related to electrical outages.
Damage to trees appeared widespread, particularly in tree-laden Woodway. Many residences had trees, if not branches, on the ground. Several homes had fallen trees on them; others had near-misses from large oaks. Woodway and Hewitt neighborhoods were still without power early this afternoon.
Dunn said that most of the damage in the Waco area was reported between 12:30 and 1 a.m., when the area was battered by the high winds, as well as rain and hail.
City of Waco spokesman Larry Holze said that the winds caused numerous power outages and that at 10 a.m. there were still about 22,000 people without power. Holze also said that an apartment complex in Hewitt sustained major damage and that the Bledsoe-Miller Recreation Center, 300 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., has been opened as a temporary shelter for people who have been displaced by storm damage.
Holze said Waco police and emergency cleanup crews are working overtime to keep the city operating smoothly.
“They’ve done a marvelous job of making sure that when people wake up they don’t see all that damage that’s happened,” Holze said.
As severe as the storms were, Holze was said that things could have been much worse.
“The good thing, so far, is we haven’t received any reports of injuries or, certainly, any deaths,” Holze said.
Dunn said that there is a 50 percent chance of more thunderstorms tonight, though not expected to reach the severity of Friday night’s storms. Sunday, she said, should be mostly clear until the evening, when there is a chance for more storms to pass through.
I've been looking fot this all day. Even the Texas news channel just talking about mostly Austin.
Wonder if this weather affected the "Rumble at the Ranch" scheduled for this afternoon in Crawford, Tx by the Minutemen?
You alright, Valerie?
We were under a tornado watch/warning last night in south eastern NM and there was one tornado on the ground. Then the storms moved on off into TX.
I don't know about that, but my son was out for dinner tonight in Waco for his senior prom with his date and another couple. Some of the Minutemen were at the same restaurant. The Minutemen sat at a nearby table and as they were leaving, the Minutemen walked by their table, told them how nice they looked, and plunked down a $100 bill and said that dinner was on them. I can't wait until he gets home to tell me the whole story!
We had quite a storm early today, 5 hours south of Waco!
oh, I'm fine. I am in austin. We had a wild thunderstorm as I got off work tonight and I was thoroughly soaked by the time I got to my car. That's about it.
Please stay safe everyone. Our prayers are with you.
How nice:')
Did you take any pictures?.... of the storm that is?
Thanks for posting, that is great. I imagine he and his date are thrilled as well they should be. And congratulations to your son and his date for their graduation.
It's good to hear the Minutemen were their at dinner, sounds like the weather wasn't a problem. Thanks again.
ping
Now that is a prom night that will never be forgotten! Well done, Minutemen!
My dad and his wife live in Hewitt on Bellaire,all must be well ,no one bothered to call. My brother lives just down the road in Lorena.
In Southwest Houston, about 6:30 a.m. this morning, we lost electricity due to a huge bolt of lightning. Seemed like the house shook a little.
Electricity came back on in about 3 minutes, and the storm went past very quickly. Didn't rain very much.
I believe they are predicting the same in the morning.
We took a drive around town after dinner and there was some damage, mostly in the industrial/commercial part of town. There was a story on the local news this morning about a young woman who was caught out in the storm in her car and was afraid, so she inched her car (slowly) THROUGH the glass doors at the mall and parked inside. I just don't know what to say about that.
Hewitt, just south of Waco, was made famous by Willie Nelson when he pulled over on I35 to sleep off the effects of whatever he was smoking. When the cops checked his vehicle, a small amount of drugs was discovered.
My sister is near there (Rebaj). A lot, as of this evening are without electricity and phone. She had trouble getting thru even on her cell. She said a lot of trees down and wind damage but she thought everyone ok.
Me either:') If a tornado chasing me though........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.