Tag Archive for: National Weather Service

Tornado Hits Dallas, Storm Then Brings Destruction To East Texas

Powerful storms blew through Northeast Texas on Sunday night and early Monday morning, leaving behind extensive damage to homes and businesses. There were reports of quarter-sized hail, tornadoes and straight-line winds that reached more than 100 mph in some areas.

The most severe weather struck the DFW Metroplex, and Dallas in particular.

Officials with the National Weather Service have confirmed that tornado touched down near Dallas Love Field on Sunday night before moving northeast through the city. There were no serious injuries reported, but nearly 140,000 people were left without electricity across Dallas, Richardson, Garland, Rowlett, Sachse and surrounding cities.

Power lines were torn down, trees were knocked over and many structures were damaged or destroyed.

A house owned by Dallas Stars player Tyler Seguin was among the buildings ripped apart by the tornado. The athlete explained on Twitter that this property was actually for sale, and that he had recently moved to another home. Seguin thanked those who reached out to him online and called the situation “an extremely sad sight to see.”

Many more homes, schools and shopping centers were left in shambles after the tornado. Tina Devlin of Dallas told KXAS-TV that her house was a “total loss,” and similar reports came from homeowners in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, Garland and Sachse. “I heard all the snapping of the trees and the wind blowing, and so I climbed into this bedroom closet, and just as I got in there, the roof blew off,” Devlin said.

Shingles were reported missing from roofs in various cities from Keller, located north of Fort Worth, all the way to Carthage, to the southeast of Longview. That is a path of nearly 200 miles.

Dallas Fire-Rescue also responded to a structure collapse on Sunday night. Seven people escaped from the building, said to be an auto repair shop, just before it came down. Firefighters also received calls about broken glass and debris at multiple homes, and a 7-Eleven convenience store that collapsed. Again, everybody made it outside without injury.

Even a fire station was not safe from the overnight storm’s destruction. According to Jason Evans with Dallas Fire-Rescue, one of the department’s stations sustained significant damage — including a partial roof collapse — as a result of strong wind gusts and flying debris. No firefighters were hurt, but the building was left uninhabitable.

Radio station KNON-FM went off the air when the storm hit. Lew Morris of “Reckless Rock Radio” told The Associated Press that the Dallas building’s power went out just before the “distictive whistle” of a tornado. “We then heard the building shaking and could hear the glass windows shattering everywhere along with debris banging around. We waited until all the noise died down,” Morris recalled. The studio was destroyed, but staff members were not harmed.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Independent School District canceled classes at some schools on Monday, citing damage to campuses.

After the storm ravaged the DFW area, it marched toward East Texas with the same fury. The National Weather Service stated that a tornado also touched down near Fair Play on Sunday night, about nine miles west of Carthage. Power lines were ripped apart and trees were toppled in Henderson, Pine Hill and Alba. A hardware store in Troup was destroyed.

Crews with the National Weather Service will be surveying the storm damage in Rusk County and Panola County on Monday to determine if more tornadoes were responsible for some of this destruction.

Let the experts from Stonewater Roofing help you get your life back on track after this devastating storm. We have crews across East Texas available to assist with the cleanup efforts and inspect your property for damage. We are ready to help homeowners and businesses find peace of mind after this disaster. Stonewater Roofing is here for you.

Wind Can Be More Damaging To Your Roof Than Hail

It makes perfect sense that hailstones would cause damage to your home’s roof. After all, we’re talking about chunks of ice barreling down onto your property at a high rate of speed. But even storms that do not have much hail can be destructive to your roof. That is because wind has the power to rip away entire pieces of your home’s protective top layer.

Such a storm was felt recently in the DFW area. There were very few reports of hail, but winds reaching up to 80 mph knocked down trees and power lines, damaged buildings and even toppled a crane in downtown Dallas. It might not be the kind of storm that has homeowners thinking about roof repairs, but that is a mistake.

According to the National Weather Service, some slight roof damage can occur with just 45 mph winds, even though this is considered to be a “non-severe” storm. A traditional “severe” storm features winds of at least 58 mph, and definitely has the potential to rip apart a home’s roof. Wind speeds above 75 mph will likely cause widespread roof damage.

The effects of strong winds on a home can be pretty interesting, because the damage is not done in a uniform manner. Wind tends to cause the greatest amount of damage along the edges of a roof, or in areas that were damaged by a previous storm. Those are the places where the shingles can most easily be ripped away from your property.

Much of the reasoning is based in science. Wind pressure is greater along a home’s perimeter, and lower in the middle sections of a home’s roof. Also, there are two types of pressure: positive and negative. The positive pressure creates a pushing effect while the negative pressure is more like a suction. Your roof will experience both kinds of pressure. The section of your roof that sees each type of pressure depends on the direction that the wind hits your home.

Strong winds knocked trees down onto and around a home. (credit: NOAA)

That wind pressure will cause the materials on your home’s roof to move. In areas of higher pressure (like the edges) or locations where the shingles are already damaged, that movement will be greater. The problems increase exponentially from that point. Once there is a little bit of movement, it becomes easier for wind to grab that shingle and move it more, or even peel it away from the roof entirely.

This kind of roof damage usually starts very small, and is difficult for most homeowners to notice. But the problem increases with each gust of wind that blows through your area. Spots where shingles are raised, displaced or missing altogether become susceptible to water damage from rain, which can quickly lead to leaks inside of your home.

The goal is to prevent wind damage before problems become devastating, or fix your home’s issues very soon afterward. Contact the experts at Stonewater Roofing for your FREE damage assessment. We can thoroughly look over your home and let you know if recent storms have had a hazardous impact on your family’s safety.

‘Setting Aside Roof Sales’ To Help Longview Recover From Storms

Extremely powerful straight-line winds caused severe damage to homes and businesses across Longview this week. The National Weather Service said that gusts reached as high as 90 mph along a path nearly 17 miles long and more than 2,000 yards wide. KLTV meteorologist Mark Scirto compared the Longview storms to “an EF-1 tornado and a high-end Category 1 hurricane.”

Mayor Andy Mack confirmed that there were no fatalities nor serious injuries in Longview, but there was plenty of damage left behind.

A tree lands on the roof of a home in Longview, TX.

Roofs were ripped apart. Large trees and power lines were toppled. The Longview storms resulted in widespread power outages and even forced some East Texas school districts to delay or cancel classes. Residents shared stunning photos of the damage on Facebook, showing massive amount of debris in their yards and on top of their houses.

But nothing could prepare Alicia Price for what she saw firsthand. “Facebook does not really do the damage justice,” she said. “You drive down through here and see roofs ripped off homes, huge trees through homes, windows blown out, patio doors blown out. The damage is pretty astronomical.”

Severe storms caused catastrophic damage to homes and businesses in Longview, TX.

That prompted Price, an invoicing specialist with Stonewater Roofing, to spring into action. She began coordinating with friends, business owners, police and city officials in Longview. The goal was to donate time, money and supplies to those impacted by this brutal storm, as well as those trying to clean up the mess that it left behind.

“We just wanted to give back to the community and help,” Price explained.

The local Longview roofing team set up camp at the corner of Judson Road and Eden Drive. There, they have been providing barbecue meals around the clock and offering assistance in any way possible. “People are showing up to help,” stated Price early Friday. “Even this morning, I had some random people drop some water off. I don’t even know how they knew we were here.”

Along with the homeowners who saw property damage from the storm, Price and her team are also helping the city workers who have been busy cleaning up the storm’s path of destruction. “The city and police department were very welcoming,” Price added. “They’ve had nobody offer, so they were very excited that we were here and showing up.”

Trees knocked down onto homes was a common sight after storms blew through Longview, TX.

“When incidents like these happen, this is where we set aside trying to sell a roof,” explained Trent Spradlin, Chief Marketing Officer with Stonewater Roofing. “We set that aside for being empathetic to people who have lost something. All of us here at Stonewater obviously have experienced loss of some sort at some time, and we know what that’s like.”

“Whether its a homeowner or a city employee that’s been working throughout the night and during the day, giving them a break and some sense of normalcy, not having to worry about not having electricity at home to cook food and things of that nature, really is the reason that we’re doing this,” Spradlin elaborated. “It speaks directly to the Stonewater culture.”