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February 11, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: Storm leaves some damage in its wake

By Rich Flowers News Editor

A storm that blew through Henderson County Tuesday night toppled trees, snapped power lines and interrupted electrical service for about 1,600 Athens area Oncor customers.

No injuries were reported in the county due to the storm. Earlier Tuesday, a tornado in Lone Grove, Okla., killed eight and accounted for dozens of injuries.

Shortly before midnight, the Athens Police Department began to get reports of security alarms being set off in the city. A check led police to believe the alarms had been set off by high winds. By midnight, many in the city were without power.

Oncor District Manager Brenda Walker said crews were busy trying to restore lights to about 100 customers still without service Wednesday morning.

“In Henderson County there were a lot of trees that were off the right-of-way that pulled lines down,” Walker said. “There was also wind damage to equipment like broken poles and cross arms. Unfortunately, with a utility service, high winds and storms can really wreak havoc.”

Walker said Oncor tries to respond to widespread outages in the most efficient manner possible, making repairs that will get large numbers of customers back on line first, then going to the more remote areas.

Nick Hampshire of the National Weather Service said the Henderson County storm was part of a squall line that spawned thunderstorms throughout the region. Henderson County was placed under a severe thunderstorm warning. At 10:24 p.m., all volunteer fire departments in the county were notified of the severe weather alert and storm sirens were sounded.

Henderson County Pct. 4 Commissioner Jerry West said his precinct was probably hit the hardest. At about 12:30 his crew deployed to clear trees east of LaRue. Later, Pct. 4 workers went to clear trees that fell in the vicinity of Farm-to-Market Road 315. Many large pine trees were lost in the storm, West said.

“Bunches of trees fell down and there was lots of damage,” West said. “We had them cleared off the roads at about 5:30 a.m.

West said he had gotten more reports of downed trees after daylight Wednesday.

“That kind of damage is not going to be widespread everywhere,” Hampshire said. “There there will be pockets of high winds.”

The winds may have reached 60 to 70 miles per hour on the county’s southeast end, Hampshire said.

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