TEXAS STORM
Click-2-ListenThe Lufkin Daily News
Thursday, December 20, 2007
A storm that hit Angelina County overnight Wednesday yielded nickel-sized hail and winds gusting up to 60 mph that left debris across several neighborhoods and caused more than 2,000 homes to lose electricity.
Zavalla students were given the day off Thursday, as the entire city was left powerless by dawn, according to David Collier with Oncor Electric Delivery and Zavalla Superintendent Kathy Ray.
 Denise Hoepfner/The Lufkin Daily News |
| Workers clear a tree that fell across Robinhood Lane on Thursday morning. |
 Denise Hoepfner/The Lufkin Daily News |
| Wednesday night's storm knocked a tree on this vehicle on Robinhood Lane in the Brookhollow neighborhood of Lufkin. |
 Denise Hoepfner/The Lufkin Daily News |
| Pike Electric employees work to replace a telephone pole that was damaged when a tree fell across the power lines on Robinhood Lane. |
 Denise Hoepfner/The Lufkin Daily News |
| Wednesday night's storm knocked down this fence in a home on Robinhood Lane. |
 Denise Hoepfner/The Lufkin Daily News |
| A telephone pole on Robinhood Lane was damaged by Wednesday's storm. |
"The whole town is out of power," Collier said. "There are 14 cross arms and several spans of wire from Huntington to Zavalla down."
Crews began restoring power to neighborhoods around the county, including parts of Brookhollow and the Mantooth neighborhood in Lufkin. As of 3 p.m., Collier said, 1,200 homes and businesses remained without power county-wide, most of those located in Zavalla. "Our goal is to try get Zavalla on by 8 to 10 p.m.," Collier said. "We're working until we get everybody restored."
In the Brookhollow subdivision, city workers were out in the pre-dawn hours, cutting downed trees so electric crews could come in and repair the downed power poles and lines.
Hardest hit in Brookhollow was Robinhood Lane, where winds felled half a dozen trees, causing damage to homes, power lines and one vehicle.
Homeowner Daisy Wadsworth lost her fence, some patio furniture, wind turbines and three trees. One of those trees, an 80-foot pine, just missed Wadsworth's bedroom by about 10 feet, said Sylvia Marshall, Wadsworth's daughter.
"She's kind of shook up right now," Marshall said. "She said it felt like her roof was going up."
A glass-topped patio table that survived Hurricane Rita was thrown across the yard, its glass shattered. Another patio table near the pool was untouched, as was furniture on the porch. "Not a cushion was moved," Marshall said. A roofing tile remained embedded in a tree in the front yard, evidence of the strong winds.
One of Wadsworth's trees fell across the street onto a small sports utility vehicle. The owner of the car was on his way to California, but had stopped to visit his friend for the night.
Lufkin First Assembly, located on South John Redditt Drive, sustained damage when two large plate-glass windows in the worship center lobby were blown inward by the strong winds. Hours earlier a retirement party with about 500 guests had been in full swing. Church staff arrived Thursday morning to find shards of glass and some Christmas ornaments strewn around the lobby.
That just two of the numerous windows surrounding the lobby were broken was a relief to Executive Pastor Jeremey Yancey.
"It could have been a whole lot worse," he said.
Other damage at the church included missing ceiling tiles in the worship center, a power line downed by a falling tree, and a parking lot covered with debris. Church staff and members were already at work sweeping up the remnants of the storm by early Wednesday morning. Despite the damage, Yancey said, the church will still have service at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The late night/early morning storms that moved northeast through Angelina County developed between College Station and Houston, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Glenn Carrin.
The NWS issued Angelina County a warning at 11:02 p.m. and soon after it received reports of nickel-sized hail five miles southeast of Wells, Carrin said.
A second warning was issued for the area at 2:49 a.m. This storm moved southwest to north east with gusts of 60 mph, he said.
Although the NWS issued a third storm warning at 4:14 a.m. for southeastern Angelina County, the NWS now believes this was part of the same early-morning system due to its slow-moving nature, Carrin said. Consequently the southeastern portion of the county and nearby areas realized more rain, with Broaddus reporting 3.5 inches of rain, he said.
The bulk of downed tree and power outage reports for areas west of Lufkin from this second, slow-moving but powerful storm occurred around 2:55 a.m., he said. By 7 a.m. the region was clear of storm activity, he said.
Earlier forecasts for continued storms Thursday are now replaced by clear skies for the next 36 hours, with a high of 74 today and Friday, and a low of 43 Friday morning.
Lufkin police spokesman David Young said the storm triggered a higher number of alarms than usual, with 29 of 30 alarm calls weather-related false alarms — and blew parts of air conditioning units off Angelina Village and Lufkin Mall. No injuries or vehicle accidents were reported in relation to the storm, Young said.
