Severe Rain and Wind Storm Rocks Houston County
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – The warnings were there but no one quite expected the storm that tore through Houston County late Wednesday, April 26. High winds and several inches of rain left many residents with standing water, fallen trees, no power and, in some cases, no water.
Surveying the damage the next morning, The Messenger was able to report shattered windows in some of the businesses on the downtown square, with the building located at the corner of Goliad and South 4th Street losing the back half of its roof – taking the old mural with it.
Downed limbs causing residents to weave their way around street blocked by debris, with damage in Davy Crockett Park to the softball fields and playgrounds.
Messenger correspondent and local weather guru Dan McElhany told The Messenger although the damage was severe in certain areas, it looked like a case of “straight line winds,” and not any tornado as was initially suspected. McElhany did report the National Weather Service may send a team to do further study and that report may change.
Straight line winds are winds produced by a thunderstorm over 57 miles per hour which have no rotation. While the official rain total was three inches, some locals reported rain gauges topping out at six inches. Some of the low-lying fields between Crockett and Latexo looked more like ponds than prairies as the water covered the normal grazing grounds.
The city of Crockett reported debris and downed power lines with work continuing through Friday around the city and at Davy Crockett Park. A boil notice was issued, advising residents to boil water before consumption. This was in abundance of caution and as of press time, the order was still in effect. Stay tuned to the city of Crockett or The Messenger online to find out when this order will be lifted.
Residents also reported the loss of water which according the city, was due to a loss in water pressure as one fire hydrant was broken when hit by a falling tree and a water line running through a creek was severed leading to water loss. This is normally counteracted by emergency generators, but these too were under water and could not alleviate the problem. By late Thursday, April 27, most water was pumping normally throughout the city.
Thousands of residents throughout the county lost power, some for a few hours, some for many more. This reporter lost power about 11 p.m. Wednesday night and it was not restored until almost 7 p.m. the next day.
Kathi Calvert from Houston County Electric Co-Op reported, “Following the main line of storms, we had over 6,000 consumer-members without power at midnight. Three main circuits in Leon, Houston and Trinity counties made up the majority of the outages but there were scattered individual outages. Our crews were responsive and able to get members restored by mid-afternoon the same day. We witnessed a tremendous amount of damage with flooding and downed trees but we were fortunate to only have 15 broken poles to replace.”
With thunder rumbling once again as of press time, most in Houston County are hoping the next few rounds of dark clouds will pass us by – we have had our quota of storm damage for one year.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
