Large HailOriginally uploaded by munchicken.
yesterday we had two large storms. the first produced very large hail and strong winds. and the second produced lots of lightning (at 3 in the morning).
my (new) car really took a beating from baseball sized hail.
after the storm had went through, it looked like a winter day, with snow covering the ground.
Friday April 21 2006
4:30 pm
x82
Storms strike again
Updated: 4/21/2006 3:53 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
Another group of severe thunderstorms moved through Central Texas early Thursday afternoon through Friday morning.
The storms, moving from west to east, included very strong winds and large hail.
In San Marcos, in just a few minutes, a shopper’s paradise turned into a weather-beaten war zone.
“[It was] just horrible and you could just see the roof, pieces of the roof flying off and light fixtures being broke,” outlet mall shopper Donna Barber said.
“It was just like a white sheet of ice that was coming down. It wasn’t even any rain it was just ice,” outlet mall employee Eric Villareal said.
There was no hiding from baseball-sized hail that pounded the parking lot. City officials counted more than a thousand cars with severe damage.
Most of them were in such bad condition they couldn’t be driven home.
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More Information
Shoppers hit by hail
San Marcos had the worst hail storm in recent memory.
Johnson City
Johnson City took a beating from Mother Nature.
San Marcos hail
The damage at a car dealership was extensive.
Soggy trail
Jogges are urged to stay away from the Shoal Creek hike and bike trail.
Even though no one was hurt, Thursday’s hail storm is going down in San Marcos history as one for the ages.
“In talking with people who have been with the city for 25 years they say they’ve never seen anything quite like it. We had the floods of ’98 that were pretty tremendous here with damage but not in one place hit like this,” San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz said.
Less than a mile away from the outlet mall a Toyota car dealership picked up the pieces from what’s adding up to be one of the most costly storms in recent history.
“I’ve been doing this for 13 to 15 years and never before have I seen anything hit this hard. All the windows interiors are completely trashed. These cars are devastated,” Collision Center Manager Joshua Carpenter said.
The Prime Outlet stores in San Marcos remain closed Friday as inspections are made on hail damage. The Tanger Outlet Mall is open.
Body shops and mechanics say it may be weeks before they can service all the damaged vehicles.
To the northwest people in Johnson City also were caught by the storm.
“[The hail] hit me in the knee and my husband got hit in the back of the head,” storm victim Margaret Kinsey said.
Golf ball-sized hail rained down sending those outdoors in a mad scurry for shelter; those indoors covered their ears from all the noise.
“It was kind of scary … It banged on the roof really hard. And we didn’t know what was going to happen. I was thinking I want this to end because I didn’t want a tornado to come and tear our house down,” storm victim Courtney Wiederkehr said.
But the most dramatic scene was two cars crushed under the tremendous weight of a tree. The owners were inside just a few feet away.
“Thank God it fell on the other side and not on the bedroom. It was really scary. It was just a really big bump and it made us jump out of the bed,” storm victim Karla Regino said.
Johnson City residents are a little skittish about when their town may get assaulted again.
Lockhart also got its share of storms. Hail pounded cars and trucks.
No injuries were reported from the marble- to baseball-sized chunks of hail in Lockhart.
The storms knocked out power in Austin. By 8 a.m. hundreds of customers were still without power.
The largest outage was in the Onion Creek and south Interstate 35 area. The other outages are scattered throughout the city.
Crews are working to restore power as soon as possible. To report an outage, call (512) 322-9100.
Austin firefighters kept busy Thursday. They had to rescue a driver around 11 p.m. at Bull Creek.
The driver got out but the SUV was stuck in the rampant water.
The Austin Fire Department pulled the vehicle out of the bumper-deep water.
The city of Austin urged joggers to avoid the hike and bike trail along Shoal Creek, which was damaged by the rain.
The weather also caused problems at an H-E-B in Western Travis County.
The store, along RR 620, was having some work done to the roof when the storms hit. Water began leaking into the building, forcing the store to close.