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Austin area neighborhoods begin storm cleanup

Power outages close several AISD campuses

02:45 PM CDT on Thursday, May 15, 2008

KVUE News

Central Texas was under the gun for severe weather for most of Wednesday evening. Tornado warnings were issued for Llano, Burnet, Williamson and Travis counties. 

The Burnet County Sheriff’s Department said they were looking into reports of trees being uprooted in the northwestern part of the county.  They reported a tornado did touch down in that part of the county.

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KVUE's Jessica Vess reports
05/15/2008
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There were nervous residents in Northwest Austin and Cedar Park as a funnel cloud was reported in the 620/183 area, near Anderson Mill.  There were no reports of any touchdowns in the area.

There were reports of golf ball sized hail in Round Rock, Tarrytown and Hyde Park when the storm passed.

Damage ranged from smashed car windows to caved in roofs. Austin Energy reported that 19,900 customers were without power early Thursday morning and 11,000 remained without power at 11 a.m. Austin-Travis Co. emergency officials said winds gusted over 60 mph. Most of the damage impacted private property.

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Did you miss Boston Legal? It will broadcast in its entirety Thursday at 11:05 p.m. on KVUE.

The largest individual outage involves an area from Barton Springs Road and South Lamar through the Zilker Park area into the Rollingwood-Inwood area.

Homeowners in Tarrytown surveyed the damage Thursday morning and began what could to be a long clean up after the massive hail storm.

The streets in the community are littered with leaves and snapped trees.

One massive branch crushed two vehicles when it fell down during the storm. Sharon Lane is one of the hardest hit areas in Tarrytown. The street is closed down in at least two places because of fallen trees. Snapped tree limbs, scattered leaves and piles of hail were still visible across the neighborhood.

KVUE News

The hail from the storm also dented cars and broke windows in a number of homes especially homes with sky lights.

Residents say the hail was as large as golf balls and in some areas like Sharon Lane, homeowners say it was even larger, getting as big as a baseball at one point.

When the storm blew through a lot of residents in Tarrytown took cover in a bathroom or pantry. They say the hail sounded more like a tornado ripping through the streets.

"The sound was so loud. It sounded like a freight train. It was just so intense. The only thing we could do was just sort of protect ourselves and wait till it passed. We came out here and it was just devastated. It was really weird, just three inches of hail everywhere. The fog was coming off it, just really eerie," said Randy Miller, homeowner.

KVUE News

There were minimal power outages in Tarrytown. Most homeowners say if they did loose power it was back up within a few hours.

Tarrytown was hit by a different hail storm just a few weeks ago but homeowners say the damage this time-around was much worse.

The outages cancelled classes at Lee Elementary, Mathews Elementary, Pease Elementary, Barton Hills Elementary, Blackshear Elementary, Campbell Elementary, Govalle Elementary and Pecan Springs Elementary. Plus the A.I.S.D. Alternative Learning Center is also closed. Norma Elementary classes will start late at 10 a.m.

Aaron Rothschild

The overnight storms also knocked down several large trees at the state Capitol and blew out windows in the dome.

Julie Fields, spokeswoman for the state Preservation Board, said Thursday that as many as seven trees were damaged. Workers were removing some of the damaged trees, including a large oak that fell at the base, and were trying to determine if others could be saved.

The storm knocked out power to thousands of Austin residents and broke windows in the dome, sending glass tumbling into the rotunda. Fields said workers were able to clean it up before visitors arrived, but that the glass did damage a painting inside the Capitol.

The City of Austin also closed all but one of its public golf courses because of severe tree damage. The only one still open is Roy Kizer in Southeast Austin.

City officials say crews are working their way through neighborhoods to move limbs and debris from roads. Residents should leave branches where city crews leave it, and Pay-As-You-Throw customers should:

-- Put limbs less than 5 feet long and 3 inches in diameter out for collection on their scheduled days over the next few weeks.

-- Call 3-1-1 for collection of large branches downed in the storm.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

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