Powerful Overnight Storms Leave Destruction, Power Outages Across Wide Central-South Texas Swath

AUSTIN, TX — Daybreak brings clarity, and the calm after the storm following last night's severe weather in Austin and elsewhere has yielded evidence of widespread destruction following last night's thunderstorms across much of Central and South Texas.

Reports of property damage emerged in Williamson County, an area for which the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning just after midnight on Monday. A county pastor, Jeff Ripple, told the Austin American-Statesman a piece of his back porch was torn from the house, inviting a photographer to record the errant chunk impaled by trees.

"It was really scary," the pastor's son and next-door neighbor, Spencer, told the newspaper. The younger Ripple described the potency of the rainfall he believed was hail given its intensity.

In a prepared statement, Williamson County officials said early Monday that some 20 homes in the county sustained damage from the sudden but powerful storms. An area school was among the damaged structures, along with outbuildings, barns, windows, roofs and cars, Fire Chief Mark Moellenberg of Thrall, a nearby city of about 900 residents, told the newspaper.

Also in Thrall, a dozen train cars carrying vehicles in the midst of nature's fury derailed just east of the city off U.S. 79, according to media reports. Thankfully, no injuries were reported as a result.

Williamson County officials said American Red Cross workers set up temporary shop in the Fireman's Hall at 214 Main Street in Thrall to help people needing shelter. Those needing assistance but didn't make it out to the gathering by noon can call the American Red Cross in Austin at (512) 928-4271 or the national hotline at 1-800-733-2767 for assistance.

Power outages resulting from the storm still hadn't been resolved as of Monday morning. In Thrall and surrounding communities, the utility Oncor was furiously working to restore electricity but offered no timeline as to when this might occur. About 1,000 customers still are without service, utility officials said, after up to 40 utility poles were compromised by felled tree limbs thrown by high winds.

Back in Austin, up to 30,000 customers experienced power outages, although three-quarters of them had power by early Monday, Austin Energy officials said in a prepared statement. As of around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, close to 7,000 customers still lacked power, with full restoration of service expected by midday Wednesday, utility officials said.

In a Monday morning tweet, Austin Energy officials said up to 40 utility poles were damaged in the storm. Many of those poles were merely cracked, but areas requring new poles would take the longest to repair, according to utility officials.

By early afternoon, Austin Energy officials updated their progress in saying that roughly 870 of its customers still remained without power.

But a couple of hours after tweeting the update, utility officials re-assessed by saying that 1,300 of its customers remained without power as of Monday afternoon. The revised total came after gathering more reports, Austin Energy officials said.

As a result of last night's storms, Austin Community College officials postponed classes until noon in the midst of ongoing electricity issues at its Round Rock campus.

South of Austin, neighboring city San Antonio experienced the brunt of the storms as evidenced by photos of damage circulating on social media and elsewhere. National Weather Service officials confirmed on Monday that four tornadoes hit parts of the city overnight as part of the story system that left significant damage to homes and other structures.

By late Monday morning, NWS officials confirmed an EF-1 strength tornado with a wind strength of 105 miles per hour touched down near The Quarry shopping center with a path length covering 4 1/2 miles, the newspaper reported. A second and third twister touched down hit the northeast side of the city and the Northern Hills subdivision.

The second tornado touched down between Windcrest and Converse, the newspaper reported. The EF-0 twister had winds of up to 70 miles per hour with a path length of 1.6 miles, officials confirmed. The third one touched down near Putting Green, also on the city's Northeast side, with an EF-1 potency marked by 110-mile-per-hour winds across a 1.4-mile path. Late Monday, NWS officials confirmed a fourth tornado touched down near Garden Ridge in neighboring Comal County.

USA Today created a slide show dramatically illustrating examples of the destruction left in the tornadoes' wake in San Antonio. Reports indicate 150 homes were damaged during the storm, and 25,000 people were left without power. No injuries have been reported.

Based on the extensive damage, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor on Monday declared the affected region a disaster area.

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