It’s been a while since I’ve posted and a lot has happened. We had a variety of small storms.
I had contacted my insurance about my roof from the hail storm we had May 12. They came out May 21. The result included fence damage, garage door damage, and roof damage. There was enough damage to now require a new roof.
Then May 22 came. That day will be remembered by many for a long time. I wrote a post I couldn’t post at the time. I include it below.
Thursday May 23
I’m writing this having made it thru the night.
Yesterday we had a storm blow thru Temple. I’m sure surrounding areas, including Belton got hit also.
It was mid/late afternoon and I had turned news on, maybe 5pm. At that point a storm with hail, news said 2-3” hail had been coming our way. I kept the news on. They seemed to think the storm would go north and maybe just hit north Bell county. I kept watching.
A friend called me but at that point sirens were going. I hung up with him. Those were tornado sirens. I couldn’t see anything but we were in warnings. News at that point said Morgans Point area could get hit with the storm.
A friend and I were texting each other. Her area got hit with the storm before I did, and that area got damage. But shortly after texting with her, and I mean minutes later, wind started up here. We even got more hail. And then rain.
And then the storm hit. Linus (my dog) and I hunkered down in the bedroom closet. Linus was scared, poor baby.
By the time it was over, and it didn’t take long, Temple had damage. A funnel was spotted in the north side of Temple. Roofs got torn off (I understand some got taken all the way off), windows got blown in. I hear a house collapsed and a mobile home was taken off its foundation.
By 7:30pm Linus and I went outside for a walk. Part of my back fence is down so I can’t let him out there. People in the area lost shingles, a lot of shingles, fences came down, backyard coops got thrown over fences, and I’m sure there was damage I didn’t see.
People have water in their houses due to the roof damages, and some have damage from fencing coming thru their windows. It is a bit of a mess! One neighbor said her second floor bathroom is flooded because of roof damage. I spoke with some one else, they were driving around looking for items they had lost, and they had a part of their fence blow thru their dining room/living room windows. They said they had water and glass everywhere.
But it appears we got off light. North Temple got hit as did downtown. Pignetti’s, an Italian restaurant downtown lost their roof, it caved in. I understand some houses had significant damage.
As of today, the day after the storm, some areas are still without power. I have power, just no internet. I have no tv so I don’t know if another storm is due this afternoon, though I’ve been told we have two coming. One is due around 3ish, and another later around 8pmish.
Right now as I write this, almost 1pm it is eerily still outside. Not a breath of wind.
All you hear outside are occasional emergency vehicle sirens and the sound of hammering. Roofing companies are outside putting tarps up on roofs in the area. Some started that last night.
The good news here is in this neighborhood, people may have house damage but nobody was hurt. I don’t think that’s true all around the area, but over here in this small little circle it seems to be true.
And for the record yesterday’s storm gave us 1.77 inches of rain. But this morning we got another 1.14 by 10AM.
My neighbor also has Spectrum internet, and they don’t have internet right now either. Hopefully it will come back up soon.
UPDATE: The upshot of that storm was Temple got hit by 2 tornadoes. The damage in some area is significant. Buildings have experienced total damage, some major damage. Some places have already said it will be 6 months or longer to rebuild, some may not rebuild. Houses have been turn up. Trees have been down, some with power lines over, or by them. One friend of a friend had significant outside damage. They had trees downed, an outside roof (pergola I think) demolished. Power lines we torn down. At this house a power line went down over an area of bushes, when the power was turned on the bushes burst into flames.
Many areas saw trees torn down, broken, twisted apart. Some were uprooted while others just lost branches, albeit enough branches to need to be cut down. One neighbor mentioned that a friend had a “new tree” in their back yard. A tree had been uprooted and moved due to the storm.
One hotel in Temple even had their front portico (the covered area in front of the main door, where cars drive) collapse. There has been enough damage FEMA assistance is now available within the Temple area. The lakes are now so full water needs to be released before the July 4th holiday.
Luckily we have not had a repeat of any of these storms since then.