Friday, April 26, 2024
Workers in Tolar are pictured Thursday morning on Mesquite Street, cleaning up damage from the thunderstorm that damaged multiple trees, electrical lines and poles, homes, businesses and other structures Wednesday evening. This group was on its way to start clearing debris on Elm Street, which reportedly was where the most severe damage occurred.
Electrical power for most of the city of Tolar has been restored this morning following Wednesday night’s thunderstorm, but even better news is that so far there have been no reports of anyone injured.
That’s according to Tolar Mayor Terry Johnson, as well as Hood County Sheriff’s Office information officer, Lt. Josh Lane.
Johnson told the Hood County News this morning (Thursday, Aug. 18) that the Tolar City Hall and “most of the town” — about 90 percent, he estimated — has electrical power back on. The power outage Wednesday evening was due to several downed power lines and poles.
Multiple instances of homes and other structures being damaged by falling trees were reported, Johnson noted, and the Tolar Middle School in the 400 block of East 7th Street sustained some damage along with the U.S. Post Office on U.S. Highway 377.
Johnson, surveying the damage while driving, said by cellphone that there was “hardly a street” in town that didn’t have at least some sign of damage — including some “major trees” that were “100-plus years old.” He noted that “Elm Street was the worst,” and also mentioned that many vehicles had sustained damage as a result of falling trees.
But, Johnson added, referring to the fact that he had not heard of any injuries so far, “We’ve been very lucky.”
Just before 9 a.m., Lt. Lane emailed the HCN a message that said there were “No reports of injuries that anyone is aware of.”
When reached by the HCN early Thursday, a representative of the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth said that it was not yet known for certain if the damaging winds in Tolar were of the straight-line variety.
Wind readings yesterday at the Granbury Regional Airport, on the Tolar (west) side of Granbury on Howard Clemmons Road, showed that no exceptionally high speeds were recorded. During the midnight to midnight window on Wednesday, the top wind gusts were only about 30 mph. The peak sustained wind speed was 23 mph. The rainfall measurement at the airport Wednesday was just under three-tenths of an inch (.29 of an inch).
Tolar schools were set for a late start today because of the problems, Johnson said.
Johnson said that some local contractors had gone out into the community and volunteered to help people where they could, prompting him to say, “I want to thank all the people that came out and helped.”
https://www.hcnews.com/announcements/photo-gallery-tolar-storm-damage/collection_6057e274-2078-11ed-af09-ef3b577f79b2.html
