Summer Spring Storm Slams Central Texas

A ferocious thunderstorm ripped through Central Texas last night, dropping large chunks of hail, smashing up trees, and leaving thousands of Austinites without power.

Near Zilker Park, the power seemed to go out even before the storm hit. Golf ball-sized hail left many of the cars on Kinney Avenue dented, though the damage wasn't as bad as in parts of town further north. A family in Clarksville found a tree resting on top of their car, but took it in good spirit.

"To pick up a tree and move it over here," said the husband to the Statesman. "That's some kind of power."

"It's kind of cool, though," added his wife.

Our friend reported "baseball-sized" hail coming down at Rio Rita in East Austin, while areas near 35th Street seem to have been smashed up pretty badly.

In nearby Hutto, lighting struck a house at around 10pm and caused it to catch fire. Authorities were able to contain the blaze, but not before it had ravaged much of the living room and kitchen.

The brand new roof of the American Red Cross of Central Texas building put up little to no fight; parts of it were strewn about the nearby sidewalk this morning, and water had flooded the building. "We’re already juggling responses to local fires and trying to find out more about how we can help with Myanmar and China,” said Executive Director Derrick Chubbs. “Now, we find ourselves trying to recover from our own disaster."

Some sections of I-35 were closed this morning due to flooding, but have since been reopened. City of Austin's Emergency Conditions Information Page shows no road closures right now.

The storm, which is estimated to have already caused about $125 million in damages, will likely continue in isolated patches today.

How did you fare? Tell us in the comments.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Allen Y Chen in News on May 15, 2008 10:08 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

meanhippy

lost three and a half trees on my property Wednesday night--luckily, they fell into neighbors' empty yards.

neighbors across the street had 7 trees go down on their lot one of which had its root ball punch up through their dining room floor, leaving a three foot mount of roots, dirt and floorboards. their gas meter was knocked akimbo and gas was shooting out to such a degree that it could he heard and *smelled* across the street. GasCo came out that night, took the meter and capped the pipes.

dog chained in the yard behind my house was killed by the huge oak branches that were sheared off--the pile where his plastic dog house was is probably 25 feet high, 50 across...

davetx

Anyone have a good roofer you can recommend?

LoudMouth

Oh yeah - ain't shit going on last night on North Lamar above 183. That's how I know god is mad at you and not me.

LoudMouth

beatyou, God is mad at Austin because of the condos. He also wants Clarksville to be a black-majority neighborhood again.

beatyou

Clarksville got hit very hard. It's been about 15 hours without power, Internet, hot water.

A car accross the street got crushed by a tree, there is also a snapped pole hanging over the street by the wires. Lots of trees covering the roads.

mdahmus

I'm on E 35th. Windows on west side smashed at almost every house, including mine (worse than most). Both our cars were off-site; one getting hail damage fixed from last storm; and the loaner car the dealer gave us (for the other car, getting upholstery work) is now under most of an oak tree. Which also brought down the landline, cable, and internet (until I got the neighbors' wi-fi key a while ago).

FUKKENHAIL.

rextasy

TV programming interrupted every 30 minutes for insanely loud "find shelter or die" emergency messages.

I saw a plethora of photobooks with people holding hail next to objects to indicate scale. You had the normal golf ball, rulers, and quarters, but then you had the insanely strange: a police badge, Kennedy half-dollar, 8oz soda can, wooden nickel, a $2 bill.

Those last items were likely produced by people who like to hear stats in units like "number of oreo cookies to the moon."

leggyblonde

i lied. 2 trees broken, one maybe by lightning?

davetx

My internets are broken, which confused me this morning because the storm was very mild where I live.

unclebusty

Ask my adjuster.

Joel Nihlean

I think the storm avoided me...I slept straight through the night and woke up to everything being completely fine. No hail damage, no leaves everywhere, no tree limbs scattered.

Nothing.

I am kinda disappointed.

shototsu

I lucked out and only had a few more hail dings on my car. Scared the living daylights outta me, though, especially when I turned on the back porchlight and noticed the rain was flying horizontal. (I know, I know, what was I thinking getting near the window? Stupid.)

glademade

a tree down in my yard and 2 windows broken on my house off E. MLK

lollygag

Guadalupe and campus are a mess.

petro

I woke up to the lovely sound of breaking glass as hail smashed through my windows.

leggyblonde

i know, "school's out" and all that :)

i didn't get much at my apt, but bouldin looked like someone took a weedeater to the treetops.

pd

Baseball-sized hail in north campus--busted out my front window and my roommates' entire windshield.

Allen Y Chen

err, you're right, I technically jumped the gun on that one!

http://www.calendar-updates.com/info/holidays/us/summer.aspx

thought I consider the first day that I can jump in the pool without immediately regretting it to be my unofficial start of summer