Monday, May 13, 2024
Terry Johnson
Regardless of whether the winds brought by the Aug. 17 thunderstorm that ripped through Tolar were straight-line microbursts or came from a cloud with rotation, the bottom line is that no major injuries were reported and things are back in working order.
Tolar Mayor Terry Johnson said that a local rancher told him he saw rotation in a black cloud formation looming over the city at that time.
A widespread power outage in and near Tolar Wednesday evening was due to several downed electrical lines and poles. By early morning the day after the storm, Johnson reported that about 90 percent of the town’s electrical power had been restored.
Friday morning, Johnson said that the city’s electrical power was likely back to 100 percent. A short-lived concern that the city’s water supply might be negatively affected with the power outages was no longer a potential issue, he said.
Multiple instances of homes and other structures being damaged by falling trees were reported, Johnson noted.
Johnson, surveying the damage while driving Thursday, 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.
Referring to the fact that he had not heard of any injuries so far, the mayor said, “We’ve been very lucky.”
Just before 9 a.m. Thursday, Lt. Josh Lane, information officer for the Hood County Sheriff’s Office, emailed the HCN a message stating there were “No reports of injuries that anyone is aware of.”
Wind readings on Wednesday 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).
Johnson said on Thursday that some local contractors as well as volunteers had gone out into the community to help people where they could, prompting him to say, “I want to thank all the people that came out and helped.”
Johnson also wanted to get out a message thanking Hood County Judge Ron Massingill for making heavy machinery available inside Tolar’s city limits from the county’s road operations department to help clean up the downed trees, branches and various other types of debris.
“It would have taken us months to clean all that up,” Johnson said. “He came to our rescue.”
Tolar schools got a late start Thursday because of the power outage problems, but Tolar ISD Superintendent Travis Stilwell told the HCN Friday morning that the schedule was back to normal. Several school buildings sustained some relatively minor trim damage, Stilwell said. One notable loss was a trailer used by the Tolar High School band. The roof was ripped off by the high winds, and Stilwell said he expects that the trailer will be a total loss.
https://www.hcnews.com/announcements/photo-gallery-tolar-storm-damage/collection_6057e274-2078-11ed-af09-ef3b577f79b2.html
