Martha Deller & Bill Miller
Star TelegramSun, 13 Apr 2008 19:18 UTC
The early-morning storm that pounded North Texas on Thursday caused about $25 million in damage in Johnson County where a tornado skipped along a 4-mile stretch west of Lillian, officials said Friday.
Six homes and two businesses were destroyed, 22 homes were significantly damaged, and 18 had minor damage, emergency management coordinator Gerald Mohr said.
In the Happy Hills area, the hardest-hit homes were uninhabitable.
"Some homes with half the roof gone and major water damage inside will have to be stripped out and start over from nothing," Mohr said.
"One house doesn't look too bad, but it shifted several inches on the foundation and broke loose the bolts and plates holding it to foundation. It will be totaled." Johnson County is waiting for more information before possibly seeking a state disaster declaration, County Judge Roger Harmon said
On the bright side, Mohr said, residents are helping one another recover from the damage.
"Everyone is pitching in real good. It's neighbor helping neighbor," he said.
During the storm, a gas field worker's arm was severed while he tried to help people get from an office trailer to a tool shed near Lillian, authorities have said.
The condition of the man, who has not been identified, is improving at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Mohr said.
"I talked to the oil company this afternoon and they said he was doing real good," Mohr said Friday night. "It will be a day or two until the company [EOG Energy] finishes its investigation into what happened."
Two storms spaced a few hours apart Wednesday night and early Thursday brought straight-line winds and at least four EF1 tornadoes - in Breckenridge, Palo Pinto County, DeSoto and near Lillian, according to the National Weather Service. A fifth tornado, rated EF0, was also confirmed near Breckenridge.
EF refers to the Enhanced Fujita scale, which indicates a tornado's wind speed. An EF0 tornado has winds between 65 and 85 mph. In an EF1, winds are between 86 and 110 mph.
The storms knocked out power across North Texas, and about 20,000 customers of Oncor Electric Delivery were still without power about 10 p.m. Friday, Chris Schein, an Oncor spokesman, said. Most were in Tarrant County, he said.
In Oncor's entire system, an estimated 250,000 customers were without power Wednesday and Thursday, Oncor spokeswoman Carol Peters said. Included were Breckenridge and parts of East Texas, she said.
"It was a devastating storm system," Peters said. "We lost miles of lines, and six transmission towers were blown down in the Metroplex."
In downtown Fort Worth on Friday, streets around the D.R. Horton Tower were closed until about 2:30 p.m. as workers secured three cracked windows.
Authorities had closed the streets about 6 p.m. Thursday for fear that glass loosened by the high winds would fly off and hit people below. Several restaurants and bars and other retail establishments were closed until the windows were repaired.
The work involved covering the damaged glass to make it safe while awaiting more extensive repairs, Lt. Paul Henderson, a police spokesman, said.
Staff writer Elizabeth Campbell contributed to this report.
Report outages
Sometimes electric customers don't report outages because they assume the utility company automatically knows about them, Carol Peters, an Oncor Electric Delivery spokeswoman, said Friday.
"We can't respond if they haven't called," she said.
To report an outage, call the electric provider's outage number that is listed on your electric bill and be prepared to give your electric service identification (EIS) number, which is also printed on the bill.
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