Published: May 03, 2009 08:16 pm      

Storms rip through Elkhart area

Straight line winds created headaches in the southern and eastern part of Anderson County Sunday morning as a line of fast-moving thunderstorms swept through.

According to the National Weather Service, winds in excess of 70 miles per hour hit the Elkhart, Slocum and Denson Springs areas around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, leaving behind downed trees and power lines.

Anderson County Emergency Management Coordinator Schelby Wells said that the winds and the damage surpassed those of Hurricane Ike in September.

“These winds were stronger than Ike,” Wells said. “We had more trees down in that area than with Ike. The trees that went down with Ike were smaller than this time.”

Volunteer firefighters helped an elderly resident from her mobile home after a tree fell on it on CR 1231 in the Elkhart area, Wells said.

Precinct 1 road and bridge crews, volunteer firefighters, utility crews, tree trimmers and Texas Department of Transportation workers were busy once the storm passed out of the area, clearing trees from roadways, restoring power and fixing a downed traffic light in Elkhart.

By 3 p.m. Sunday, most roadways were navigable again, though cutup trees and limbs remained on the side of the road waiting to be removed, said Precinct 1 commissioner Joe Chaffin.

“We had trees down everywhere, especially in the Slocum area,” Chaffin said. “From Elkhart east, there were lots of trees down, and limbs.”

County crews will be out during the upcoming days, cleaning up limbs and trees left behind, Chaffin said.

Oncor Electric Delivery crews were out Sunday morning restoring power to approximately 1,100 customers, Palestine area general manager Brenda Walker said.

“Most were out in the county. We had an outage near the balloon base, and down in Elkhart and Grapeland,” Walker said. “I think we’re about to get everything back on. It was a typical spring storm that blew through with high winds.”

Storms aren’t forecast to return to the area for awhile.

The National Weather Service predicts mostly sunny skies today with highs in the mid-70s and northwest winds increasing to 15 mph during the afternoon, with lows tonight in the lower 60s.

Tuesday’s highs may reach the mid-80s under partly sunny skies with southeast winds up to 15 mph, then climb into the upper 80s on Wednesday. Rain chances are 20 percent.