Friday, April 11, 2008

McKinney reeling from Thursday’s severe storm

By Rodney Williams of McKinneyNews.net

Rodney Williams/McKinneyNews.net

Severe damage can be seen on the roof of a hangar at Collin County Regional Airport.

MCKINNEY — A powerful storm system moved through the North Texas area Thursday morning, and McKinney absorbed much of the impact.

The storm system rolled through McKinney shortly before 5 a.m., bringing with it winds measured by the National Weather Service in Fort Worth at 63 mph. NWS meteorological estimates put the wind at as much as 87 mph in some parts of the area.

The storm left its mark, leaving downed power lines and power outages for crews to deal with. Oncor reported approximately 250,000 power outages across its service area, which includes McKinney. By midday, Oncor still had 180,000 outages across the area, 160,000 of those in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

“With a storm of this magnitude, outages are unavoidable,” said Rob Trimble, President and COO of Oncor. “Our crews are working as quickly as possible to restore power, but the priority in this situation is safety for both our crews and the people we serve.”

There were power outages in spots across McKinney. McKinney ISD schools were affected as Slaughter Elementary School was without power for several hours in the morning.

City of McKinney workers reported 60-70 downed trees and inoperative traffic signals in the southern part of the city. In addition, two of the city's emergency warning sirens were blown off their poles, and two of the city's water pump stations were without power for much of the morning.

IESI, the city's waste and recycling provider, experienced a phone and power outage, and any McKinney residents with customer service issues are asked to call the Environmental Service department at 972-547-7385. The Senior Center and Senior pool were also closed until Friday due to the severe weather.

Although reported home damage was minimal, two families - one on Bumpas St. and one on the 700 block of Railroad - were forced to seek emergency assistance from the Red Cross due to severe home damage. In one instance, a tree collapsed on the family's house causing the occupants to seek other shelter.

Perhaps the worst hit, however, was the Collin County Regional Airport. High winds ripped off part of the roof on the large hanger which formally belonged to McKinney Aerospace. Those winds peeled back the roof like the top of a sardine can, forcing workers to remove twisted metal from the building throughout the day. Two other buildings were also damaged, and metal debris and insulation were scattered across the airport parking lot.

Collin County Regional Airport Director Ken Wiegand said the storm and ensuing damage did not affect service, however.

"The airport is still operational. As soon as the storms cleared we had guys cleaning up and inspecting the runways," he said.

Although the runways were in fine shape, the same cannot be said for some of the small aircraft tethered outside. Six planes were damaged, including one which had its wings severely buckled from the storm.

Pegasus News content partner - McKinneyNews.net

Related stories

• McKinney early warning sirens damaged by storms (May 9, 2008)
• Thursday DFW storms included eight tornadoes (April 12, 2008)

See more stories in:

• Weather