Finally, city gets a dousing

By ED ASHER

July 24, 2000 Web posted at: 10:56 AM EDT (1456 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (The Houston Chronicle) -- After more than a month without significant rainfall, a powerful thunderstorm swept through Houston on Sunday afternoon, dumping 2 inches of rain in three hours and packing wind gusts powerful enough to knock over utility poles and trees.

More than 220,000 electricity customers scattered throughout the city were left without power because of downed power lines and lightning strikes.

"It's scattered all over the place, just about any part of the city where trees and tree limbs got into lines or debris blew into lines. There was also lightning-strike damage," said Graham Painter, spokesman for Reliant Energy HL&P.

"We've got linemen working on it. But with the numbers as large as they are, a lot of customers will not be restored tonight," Painter said Sunday.

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A lightning strike that set a crude oil terminal ablaze in Sealy resulted in the evacuation of about 40 people. Lightning struck the terminal on Teppco Crude Oil Co. property about 5:30 p.m.

Several homes and a hotel in the Austin County town were evacuated as a precaution. Industrial firefighting specialist Williams Fire Control was on the scene late Sunday assessing how to bring the blaze under control.

Lightning strikes also were reported on Houston's northwest side, said Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan of the Houston Fire Department.

During the worst part of the storm, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Fire Department responded to more than 600 calls, including two structural fires. One was a small apartment near Beltway 8 and Westheimer and the other a house fire near Hempstead and Mangum. Both were contained quickly, Flanagan said.

Winds also knocked down the wooden frames of two town houses that were under construction on Westcott between Memorial and Washington, Painter said.

"They were just framed up with two-by-fours, about three stories high. They're just a pile of rubble, an immense pile of two-by-fours like pick-up sticks," Painter said.

There were also reports that windows in high-rise office buildings near the Galleria were knocked out.

Six or seven power poles were knocked over at FM 529 near Fry Road. "Including two that were snapped in two," said Bryan Saxton, 38, who lives in the area. "Some trees were snapped in two, also. "It was preceded by dusty winds that picked up lawn furniture and hurled it 30 to 40 feet. It was kind of like being in a dust storm."

Saxton said his power was off for more than three hours.

Funnel clouds were reported in Jackson County, Chambers County and Austin County but not in Harris County, said Dave Schwertz, a forecaster for the National Weather Service. No damage was reported.

The storm also knocked KPRC-TV Channel 2 off the air in the middle of its 5 p.m. newscast.

"We have three transmitters, and we lost all of them," said Dale Werner, director of engineering for Channel 2.

At the same time, about 5:15 p.m., the newsroom was thrown into a brownout, and the staff had to switch to emergency generators, Werner said.

"We had to turn on emergency generators. Once we did that, we were able to at least fix the equipment that was taken out by the storm," Werner said.

The station was back on the air within about 25 minutes.

"We're in reasonable shape right now." Werner said about 8 p.m. "We're still on emergency generators right now, but at least everything else is working."

Before Sunday, the last measurable rainfall in the Houston area was July 1, when 0.06 inches was measured at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The last significant rainfall was June 11, when 1.15 inches of rain fell.

On Sunday, only 0.33 inches of rain was measured at Bush Intercontinental. However, 2 inches fell in central and southwest Harris County. The rest of the county received a half inch or less, the National Weather Service reported.

"There really hasn't been all that much rain," Schwertz said. "There were no reports of flooding; as dry as it has been, the ground is just sucking it right up."

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