Community | January 26, 2012 | 41 comments

Thunderstorms pound Texas; tornado hits Austin

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coolplanet
"That's very unusual for this time of year," NWS meteorologist Mark Wiley said.


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A tornado hit Austin, Texas, and thunderstorms pounded San Antonio, Dallas and Houston on Wednesday, bringing the parched Lone Star State drenching rains and destructive winds that knocked out power, flooded streets and kept emergency workers busy rescuing drivers stranded in high water.

The tornado touched down early Wednesday in northeast Austin, tearing across U.S. 290 and into a subdivision, damaging homes along a road called Happy Trail, according to the National Weather Service.

Springlike moisture from the Gulf of Mexico dropped the heaviest rainfall - 6-8 inches - on an area east of Austin and San Antonio and extending south into Houston, it added.

"That's very unusual for this time of year," NWS meteorologist Mark Wiley said. "It was just so much rain in such a short period of time. In so many areas, the ground is still fairly dry, but it was just so fast that it didn't have anywhere to go, especially in the urban areas."

There were no reports of injuries.

By Wednesday afternoon, the storms were pushing into Louisiana and were expected to head into Mississippi and Alabama on Thursday, the NWS said.

In Bastrop, an area east of Austin heavily damaged by Labor Day weekend wildfires, schools canceled classes on Wednesday. In Pflugerville, north of Austin, school buses were delayed Wednesday morning because the school district's bus barn was damaged overnight, the district website said. And the Houston Independent School District canceled after-school activities.

Wind toppled an 18-wheeler in on IH-45 in Madison County, between Dallas and Houston, officials said. More than 30 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Wednesday morning.

In San Antonio, lightning hit an apartment complex on the city's north side as storms blew through, sparking a fire that forced people into the driving rain and destroyed four apartments, officials said.

Between Austin and Houston, in Brenham, high winds twisted trees and tore the roofs off a couple of buildings in the downtown area, said Ricky Boeker, fire chief and emergency management coordinator.

"It sounded like the world was coming apart -- I'm not going to lie," Boeker told Reuters.

The severe weather in Texas follows damaging storms and tornadoes that swept through Arkansas and Alabama earlier in the week.

In Texas, "while most of the region is still in the grips of a severe drought and very much needs the rain, too much rain too quickly can do more harm than good," AccuWeather.com meteorologist Mark Miller said in a Wednesday report. "Still, the rain will go a long way in helping to reduce the severity of the drought in exceptionally dry locations."

Last year was the driest year on record in Texas and the second-hottest, according to the NWS.

CPS Energy, the South Texas electric utility, reported more than 30,000 customers without power as wind snapped electric power lines and knocked out traffic signals during the morning rush hour in San Antonio. In Austin, some 5,000 customers of Austin Energy lost power, the company said. As many as 5,000 homes and businesses in the Dallas area also lost power, according to Oncor Delivery.

As San Antonio resident Johnny Grant surveyed damage to homes in his northwest San Antonio neighborhood on Wednesday, he said of the storm: "It sounded like a freight train to me. It was something terrible."
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41 comments // Thunderstorms pound Texas; tornado hits Austin

  • IceKat
    • 0
      IceKat  
    • Image
    • “Dust Storm Marks Beginning of Southwest’s "Permanent Drought" - Joe Romm, July 2011

      Not looking good for the permanent drought, is it?
      Precipitation for 2011 came in at 11.66 inches, ranking it 24th driest since 1895 and much wetter than 7.68 inches in 1956.

      Image (NCDC) shows Annual Precipitation for the Southwest Region.
      Spot the obvious spiral into permanent drought.

    • 4 months ago
  • tverdell
    • 0
      tverdell  
    • I know we have had a mild winter thus far, but I am willing to bet that all of the cold and snow for the entire winter will happen in one day.

      Then deniers can exclaim, while digging out a tunnel from their 2nd floor bedroom window, 'GW is a hoax, look everybody, it's snow'. Then they can build their Al Gore snowmen.

      You think I'm kidding don't you.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • tverdell:

      There's a conspiracy in Roanoke Virginia by the Roanoke Times and WFIR-AM amongst many others to phrase the weather reports around in such a way as to keep people at ease. For instance, the last few days the weather was forecasting HEAVY RAINS. I was expecting a regular DELUGE the way they talked it up, darn near had me scare to dang death!!!

      I was having visions of what happened in Australia.

      Then the rain didn't show. So they moved it ahead to the next day but still heavy showers they said. Finally after a few days a few sprinkles during the night, last night in fact. The radio weatherman this morning is a very clever fellow. I've caught him before on other matters. He is a master of disguise he is. So he totally skipped saying to radio listeners the rains THEY HAD FORECASTED WERE MOSTLY A NO-SHOW.

      This morning he said "the rains have moved on". This is the dumbdown machine at work in America today. So you might ask why? WHY INDEED!!! Only a few people know the answer to that and I am one of them. There's a prophecy in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13, somewhat parallel but having some important differences also.

      Christians of 68-70 C.E. (A.D.) were told by Jesus that Jerusalem would be "surrounded by armies". Luke added "standing in a holy place". Matthew said "on holy ground" I think. Jesus said run to the mountains but how could they when SURROUNDED BY ROMAN CENTURIONS? For some unknown reason the Roman General decided to withdraw even tho he could've easily crushed the city.

      The Jews in Jerusalem began celebrating as they thought the crisis was over. But the followers of Jesus seeing the calm they ran out of Jerusalem, to the mirth and laughter and mocking of their friends & neighbors. Roman armies returned under a new General but the Christians who ran lived. Bible scholars agree on this point with JW's, that Jesus intended that prophecy to have a fulfillment then but also another time in the far future.

      The News Media people and government people know of this so when they see this calm, and Winter refusing to begin they have GROWN SORE AFRAID. Unlike the U.S. population they have cleverly managed to convince the Bible has to be False, they know the Bible really is PROBABLY & HIGHLY LIKELY TRUE TO A FAULT.

      Where I live is a Jewish beachhead of sorts because when they came here around 1960 they started Holiday Inns of America. When the last of the two Krisch brothers died it was worth $7 Billion (years ago now). This city is well, their Propitty. That is why Roanoke Virginia is remaining exceptionally calm for. All around us is tornadoes; snowstorms; ice storms; down power lines; lost power; floods; quakes; everything else.

      It almost looks like Armageddon is to start HERE. And they know that so the blackout and clever news announcers continue to throw a blanket on the News, dampening it down, anything it takes to avoid letting the cat outta da bag. They've been doing this FOR YEARS, likely suspecting it was to happen so they pre-padded the people by doing this long before it actually happened, so that when it did it would be so easy to keep the sheep and the cattle from stampeding away (and taking their money belts with em you see).

      If Death is coming on the hoof the local Republicans want as much money in their grubby fat little slimy hands as they can get => even when it means they are putting the Consumer's crummy worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire. worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire. worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire. worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire. worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire. worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire. worthless people-nothing lives in the line of fire.

      And also even besides that my good friends of Current this is why they have been keeping you from having my combustion-nought engine systems that would totally power your Homes & Cars. They do not care if you drink crude oil molecules out of the very air you breathe as long as they keep you from respecting Jehovah's Witnesses for all my engines that YOU NEED BADLY.

      Remember the Charlton Heston Yul Brynner movie The Ten Commandments of 1956? A scene in that movie shows the Egyptian not wanting to stop a pyramid block from crushing the old woman. That is happening again right now. You are about to be crushed into a lifeless lump and all they car about is getting your money before that. And of course this is the mantra Republican Business Owners & Politicians live by => YOU AND YOURS DEAD, THEY AND THEIRS ESCAPING OUT THE BACK DOOR.

      I suspect they will run into a very tall Jesus. This won't take long. Those throwing your precious family under the bus will find themselves in a far worse position because planning people's deaths is nothing less than a pre-meditated extinction of living beings. They will run but they will not escape for their heinous plan to see you lying in their morgue.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      Jesus said also => Pray your flight does not occur in Winter. This planet's two hemispheres almost makes that impossible... unless somebody doesn't have a Winter eh? A little merging of the seasons and we have Lift-Off, no one in Winter.

      Study the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses soon => it may be your Last Chance.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • -1
      coolplanet  
    • tverdell:

      What's even worse is the religious fanatics who believe this is all God's plan.
      It seems everyone has some pathetic excuse for doing absolutely nothing to stop it.
      I'm actually starting to see the whole irony in this.
      How much do you want to bet?
      I'll put my money on a winter without winter since it's half over.
      Although I'm sure we'll get slammed with some pretty nasty ice storms.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Mark701
  • LivingPong
    • +1
      LivingPong  
    • Cyclone heading for Western Australia, will take at least 72 hours to reach the coast though. East Coast looks to receive rain for the next week. I'll get some stories up eventually, I'm half asleep after two nights of at least 30C temperatures.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • LivingPong:

      That is very sad news. I am living in a dome, an oasis where few storms are happening, but I have much empathy for those finding themselves in such dire circumstances. It is at present quiet enough outside my window to hear a pin drop. Since the wind isn't blowing heat loss is minimal so my heatpump is barely running. Even also the apartments beneath mine, and they usually create very high decibels. I think I could hear a cat in the dumpster.

      They had called for vicious storms yesterday by Noon then they set it back, now they say "Maybe". I don't think they can conceive of such quiet behaviour... so they keep forecasting normal is coming, normal is coming, to somehow give the illusion of normalcy... scared to dang death people will OPEN THEIR EYES AND REALIZE SOMETHING NEW IS GOING DOWN.

    • 4 months ago
  • budsnews
  • Incredulous
    • +1
      Incredulous  
    • Duck and Cover....it's HAARP...they're trying to get rid of Ron Paul....

      yes I'm kidding, but his headquarters are outside of Austin....;-)

    • 4 months ago
  • circlesquared
    • 0
      circlesquared  
    • clearly there is a systematic destruction of our planet going on...why? profit can only be part of the answer...is control the rest? If we are forced to have a hand feed us, what does a human being get to experience?

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • circlesquared:

      Two and a half years ago I had a tapeworm scootch around in my colon and cleaned off every internal hemorrhoid I had, a few that were even bleeding.

      But then it decided to have babies and injected them into the colon wall. So one of the babies traveled up into my heart and attached itself where as it grew it began impeding blood flow to the brain. I've had lots of stuff to experience!!!

      The cancer that hit the entire right side of my chest one nice afternoon in 2006 was quite exhilarating also. So I was just standing in the kitchen minding my own business, certainly not asking questions like YOURS, when suddenly every cell in that side began to shrink, collapse as if turning into a corpse.

      You mean you don't have similar stuff happen to you? It's to die for. You can't really appreciate being alive fully until your heart has stopped or you've been thrown into brain death a few minutes. Or Lyme's bacteria got so stuffed into your extremities til your brain starts screaming at ya to take a hatchet and chop off your hand to relieve the pressure.

      Yep. I can see where you would be bored.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • coolplanet:

      What kept you? Hmm. Almost sounds like a call for an encore. Well shoot. I heard about a young woman in an emergency room. She had Lyme's real bad like I had it but I doubt whe's had a fraction of my awesome poundings (accidetns) so she was not familiar with that level of brain-screaming pain. She was screaming at the doctors to amputate both her legs.

      I wasn't in an ER, and the hatchet was nearby. HAHAHA

      I was once so tired coming back from Richmond on my motrocycle, and at that time did not fully appreciate how easily I was dropping into cold brain hypothermia right? So I took a familiar shortcut across the little mountain to get home faster. Without thyroid hormone I was so incredibly wasted on that bike that when I went up the steep incline I still thought I was level... so I was wondering why the engine was bogging down so.

      I hadn't downshifted. HAHAHAHA Another time I traded the bike far a big box van. It was very very cold. I got in from the week's running, and they offered me a room to sleep before driving home but I said no, I was expected home. I had put a kerosene heater jammed down in the step space on the other side so it was sort of keeping me decent warmth. But I hit this long hill on 460 about the time the carbon monoxide was getting to me.

      So as I got about halfway up the long grade I conked completely out. But then I woke up, raised my head off the steering wheel and found I had lost speed and had drifted into the passing land without knowing it. HAHAHAHA All so I could arrive here today with marvelous powerhouse non-polluting engine systems to be poor.

      Exactly where I was then in 1980. Before the tick bite. I will leave the hand in the tablesaw blade, brand new 8-incher, diamond-studded, for another day. Anyway, I lived. I always seem to live.

      So I can continue being poor.

      In America. Home of the Equal Opportunity slogan.

    • 4 months ago
  • remanns
  • coolplanet
  • remanns
  • circlesquared
  • remanns
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • It will more than likely hit 60 here tomorrow and still be warm into next week. This time last year we were close to having 57 inches of snow. It's all about the extremes. I have never had this kind of weather for my birthday...IIt has always been cold. it does feel eerie.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • KB723
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • remanns
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      60 traded for a 57. Amazing. MUST BE NORMAL. haha (IceKat speaks!) Hmm. You're actually warmer than Virginia. We must be located near the bosom position of Abraham? The fulcrum between you and Texas. Supposed to reach 59 here in a few days, otherwise upper 40's.

      No snow in sight. Calling for heavy rain today but didn't show so they set it off for later tonight, probably a bad sign for the South (TN, AL, MS) having energy released here during the night. Just a thought. The reason I say that is because if the heavy rain hits here it places the other states on the storm edge for the morning, an optimum situation to spawn multiple tornadoes which they're already prone to anyway.

    • 4 months ago
  • budsnews
  • tverdell
  • coolplanet
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • "while most of the region is still in the grips of a severe drought and very much needs the rain, too much rain too quickly can do more harm than good"

      Be careful what you pray for.....

    • 4 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • coolplanet:

      It seems to be the pattern and trend now. Severe drought followed by drenching extreme rain. Both extremes ruin crops. One dries them out, the other drowns them. This has been happening in China, Latin America, Africa, and here last year when both the Missouri and Mississippi set records for floods. So yes, be careful what you wish for. From what I saw of Austin yesterday it looked like Brisbane, which BTW is also getting hit with floods now again as it did last year.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • Truthitswhatsfordinner
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
  • Truthitswhatsfordinner
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • JanforGore:

      There is nothing like dirt. It is the living skin of Earth and we need to work together to preserve it. This is the last seven minutes of a great documentary entitled "Dirt." Dirt is not a dirty word, it's life.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • eden49
  • remanns
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