100 mph wind batters Butler County

BY STAN FINGER

The Wichita Eagle

Straight-line winds of 100 mph or more swept through the Flint Hills early Tuesday, flattening utility poles, destroying farm outbuildings and causing several accidents -- including one that sent two young adults to a Wichita hospital.

"We've got buildings that have just been blown to pieces," Butler County Emergency Management Director Jim Schmidt said, assessing damage between El Dorado and Cassoday in the eastern half of the county.

Perhaps three inches of hail -- most of it about the size of peas -- covered the Kansas Turnpike between El Dorado and Cassoday early Tuesday.

"There was just so much of it," said Capt. John Walters of the Turnpike Authority. "One trooper I talked to who was out in it said it was like driving in snow for a while."

Three semitrailers rolled onto their sides north of El Dorado; another tipped over on I-135 two miles south of Newton in Harvey County, officials said.

Robert Wilkinson, 22, of Potwin was driving south on K-196 just northwest of El Dorado shortly after 1 a.m. when his car left the road and struck a tree, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said.

Wilkinson and his passenger, 19-year-old Holly Dreiling of Hays, were pinned and had to be extricated by a rescue squad, Murphy said.

"Whether they hydroplaned or the wind blew them off the road, they don't know what caused that yet," Murphy said.

Wilkinson is in critical condition at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus. Dreiling is in fair condition.

Westar spokeswoman Erin La Row said 34 utility poles were reported down in Lyon County not far from Emporia, and another 40 were down in Butler County.

In addition, 74 of Westar's "H"-style large transmission line poles were damaged or knocked down east of El Dorado near 150th Street, Schmidt said.

"It's an expensive little mess they've got up there," he said.

Westar crews from elsewhere in the utility's coverage area are assisting with pole repair and replacement, La Row said.

Nearly 1,000 Westar customers in Harvey and Butler counties were still without power Tuesday afternoon, but she said service was expected to be restored by late Tuesday or early today.

More than 130 power poles belonging to Butler County Rural Electric Cooperative were knocked down by the winds, a recorded message reported to customers.

At least 30 linemen from surrounding cooperatives are converging on the area, the recording stated, but no timetable for resumption of service was given.

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com.

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Hail damage: In south Tulsa, hundreds of new and used vehicles at car dealerships were damaged by large hail.

"Everything I had on the lot was hit," said Mike Winkle, sales manager with Joe Marina Saturn, 7830 E. 91st St., which had about 150 vehicles on the lot.

"It was hammered pretty hard," Winkle said, adding that the dealership's staff was awaiting a visit from insurance adjusters so the amount of damage could be estimated.

Brandon Murphy, general manager of Nelson Mazda, 9900 S. Memorial Drive, said he had about twice as many vehicles on his lot.

"I'm sure it hit everyone in the area pretty hard," Murphy said.

Roofing companies scrambled Tuesday to start damage assessments on area homes. Bob Walker, owner of Superior Roofing, said the number of people calling his company has at least tripled.

"I've been inundated with phone calls," he said. "We started at 3:30 this morning."

Walker called the hailstorm a "perfect 10" in terms of severity. Though assessments continue, he said State Farm Insurance estimated at least 8,000 roofs in the area have been destroyed, and that's just State Farm policyholders.

He said the area between 101st and 111th streets, Memorial Drive and Harvard Avenue was especially hard-hit.

Frank Nichol, manager of Metro Roofing Company in Tulsa, said all five roofs on homes or apartment buildings near the Bixby area that he inspected were destroyed.

His call volume has also tripled, and he expects it to stay high for quite some time.

"About 90 percent of the people won't call us until they call their insurance company," he said.

State Farm had been working all day Tuesday to assess the storm's impact, said John Wiscaver, a State Farm of Oklahoma spokesman.

By noon Tuesday, State Farm had more than 500 home claims in the metro area, said Wiscaver, who anticipates significantly more claims based on those early reports.

It sometimes takes a few days for people to figure out how much damage the storm may have caused. But the quicker they can report their loss, the better, Wiscaver said.

At the Glass Doctor, a Broken Arrow-based glass repair business serving homes, businesses and vehicles, calls from hailstorm victims started coming in the early morning hours.

"It's been too hectic to even tell you how many calls we've had," manager Denise Collins said.

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World staff writers Jeff Billington, Robert Evatt and Laurie Winslow contributed to this story.

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Tim Stanley 581-8385
tim.stanley@tulsaworld.com

Nicole Marshall 581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com

Jeff Postelwait 581-8387
jeff.postelwait@tulsaworld.com

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www.ktbs.com/player/player.cfm?video_id=6937&current_zone=1

 

 

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Staff photo by Tanner Spendley Severe storms passed through Texarkana early Tuesday morning, leaving city streets covered in debris.

 

Hail storms damage local businesses Local radio station, car dealership hit Stormy weather and     isolated hail over the weekend wreaked havoc with outdoor plans as well as with property owners.

Several soccer games were cancelled due to muddy fields and high winds caused limited use of area lakes. The wind driven rain caused problems with KWRW-FM radio when moisture inside the main transmitter caused it to fail for a period of three hours Sunday.

Greg James Country Motors did not escape the hail damage either. Over 130 new and used automobiles were damaged by the hail. "This is the first time in my 28 years in the automobile business that this has happened to me," said Mr. James.

The hail was driven by high winds causing damage to not only the top of vehicles, but also the sides of them, added Mr. James. Damage to his vehicles could top $75,000 from the storm, according to Mr. James. Local property owners also reported damage. Austin Young, State Farm agent, told the Cherokeean Herald his phones were ringing all day on Monday from his clients calling to report damage from the weekend storms.

"Most of the hail was small, but some people said they had hail the size of a quarter and one man froze a hail stone in his freezer that was one inch in diameter." Generally, damage was light, said Mr. Young, with no reports of glass breakage due to the hail storm. Those who think they received hail damage from the storms should contact their insurance agents. Large hailstones accompanying Monday night’s storm left a trail of damage that included shattered windows and windshields. No injuries were reported, but damage to homes, buildings and vehicles was widespread.

 

“The vehicle damage was all over Texarkana. The building damage was mainly located downtown,” said Kathy Reynolds, deputy coordinator for the Texarkana Emergency Management Office. The reported sizes of the hail ranged from nickel- to golf ball-size. In some isolated areas, it measured even larger, Reynolds said.

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Dallas-Fort Worth storms damage homes, flatten tires

 

08:20 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 2, 2008

 

By ANDREW McLEMORE and MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
amclemore@dallasnews.com and mlindenberger@dallasnews.com

 

Owners of companies that repair roofs and fences already were hearing Tuesday from customers who went through Monday’s bout of severe weather.

"We've gotten a lot of calls already this morning," said Tina Anderson, who owns a roof repair shop in Lewisville with her husband Marc Anderson.

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Although most of Dallas County avoided the fast-moving storms, some nearby counties were not so lucky.

Meteorologist Steve Fano of the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said Monday's storms hit Denton, Ellis and Johnson counties the hardest. The small towns of Godley and Keene in Johnson County may have suffered tornado damage and Denton County received an inch and a half of hail, he said.

Mr. Fano said North Texas residents should expect more rain and thunderstorms Wednesday with hail-producing storms and damaging wind gusts on Thursday.

Mrs. Anderson, a 45-year-old resident of Highland Village, said customers called in to report damaged gutters and skylights from Monday’s storms. Some customers were concerned about their roofs because they had shingles in their grass, but Mrs. Anderson said sometimes those can be from their neighbor's home.

"We got major hail out here," Mrs. Anderson said. "We got baseball-sized hail. We have to check our own roof."

Mrs. Anderson said many people want to check their roofs for damages, but she advised them to stay off until they are dry – probably by noon Tuesday.

"It's hard to tell what kind of damage has been done when it's wet," she said.

Grant Embree, who owns a landscape repair business in Flower Mound, said the price of lumber for fixing fences has doubled in the last six to eight months and the increase is reflected in the costs of repair.

"The price of wood is so astronomically high, you can't raise the prices enough” to compensate, Mr. Embree said. "Being in this business is hard because there's companies that will come in and undercut you."

Chris Dandridge said several customers already had dropped off their hail-damaged cars at Goodyear Gemini Auto Service in Highland Village. Mr. Dandridge said he was surprised by the hail, but the damage he has seen so far is not as severe as he expected.

Monday’s rains also flattened tires, as well as spirits, for drivers on the Dallas North Tollway, thanks to washed out pavement on northbound lanes between Cedar Springs Road and Lemmon Avenue.

The North Texas Tollway Authority said at least 15 drivers have filed claims with the agency after sustaining flat tires Monday evening.

Bills for towing and repairs will be paid, NTTA spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt said.

A contractor for the agency had diverted traffic onto new lanes beginning at about 5 a.m. Monday, said Ms. Coffelt. But by Monday afternoon, the paving materials used to smooth the transition from the old lanes to the news ones had been washed away, she said Tuesday.

The contractor, Austin Bridge and Road, was made aware of the problem when one of its own vehicles sustained a flat tire Monday evening, she said. Once alerted, NTTA crews responded and repairs the road at about 9 p.m.

The flat tires occurred between about 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., according to statements filed with the claims received so far, Ms. Coffelt said.

NTTA’s insurance coordinator is handling the claims, which will be paid by the contractor, Ms. Coffelt said. Drivers who sustained damage may call NTTA at 214-461-2000 and ask for the insurance coordinator, she said.

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    **BLASTED WARNING PDR IN THIS AREA IS AT YOUR OWN** RISK 

 

TEXARKANA, TX
Storm Causes Widespread Damage in Texarkana Area

Posted: April 1, 2008 07:05 AM CDT

Updated: April 1, 2008 09:54 AM CDT

 

People on both sides of the stateline in Texarkana are waking up to the aftereffects of a powerful storm that also caused widespread damage across the midwest.
  It swept through the northern parts of the ArkLaTex late Monday night,  producing golfball- to baseball-sized hail, according to some witnesses accounts.  
  The hail, in fact, is what caused most of the damage in the Texarkana area.  It shattered windows on a number of vehicles, including a patrol car for the Bi-State Police Department and several new cars on an auto dealer's lot. 
   A window on a bay door at the fire station on the Arkansas side also broke out during the storm.
   The wind, although not as damaging as the hail, caused its share of destruction as well.
  "We have mostly power lines down," said Ginger Lee with the Texarkana Arkansas Fire Department.  Lee said she was not sure exactly how many homes and businesses were affected by power outages.  She said she also suspected some of those downed lines were for cable television.
   The storm's power seemed to take many people by surprise.  One driver told KSLA News he and his passenger became frightened when hail began pummeling their car, shattering its windows.
  "He screamed louder than Mariah Carey," the driver said about his passenger.
   Despite the damage, police and firefighters say they had no reports of any injuries.
  Story by Katrina Webber with additional reporting by Fred Gamble
 

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