Tropical Storm — Smith, Texas

2008-09-13 · Smith, Texas

Event narrative

Tropical storm force winds resulted in numerous trees and power lines downed throughout the county. Trees were reported down on Rhones Quarter Road between the towns of Whitehouse and Tyler, Texas. Power outages were widespread as well resulting from all the downed trees and trees across power lines. Some roads across the county were impassable. A tree was downed on a home on Glenview Avenue near the University of Tyler Texas Campus. One occupant was reported trapped inside and had minor injuries. At one point in time...over 100 roads were blocked by fallen trees in the city of Tyler, Texas alone. Several homes were destroyed and several more heavily damaged as trees fell across the county. One tree injured a person in a car as well. 12 homes were reported damaged by trees with 2 being destroyed and one commercial building destroyed in Troup, Texas. Another tree destroyed a mobile home on Farm to Market Road 344 in Smith County. There were 58 locations across the county where power lines were downed. In Lindale, Texas, a tree fell across a mobile home crushing the roof and damaging much of the contents inside. Another tree fell across a home on FM. 16 east of Lindale.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Ike came onshore across extreme southeast Texas during the late night hours of September 12th and the pre-dawn hours of September 13th. The storm made good progress northward during the day of September 13th and brought Tropical Storm force winds to much of northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana and extreme southwest Arkansas. The storm produced widespread downed trees and power lines along with structural damage either from the winds or from downed trees which fell on top of structures. Power outages were widespread across a three state area of northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas. Southwest Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) which provides electricity to a good portion of northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas said that the number of outages peaked at 187,000 customers. Additional power companies were called in from far away as Indiana and Michigan to deal with the numerous power outages. This was the second most number of outages at one time reported in SWEPCO's 96 year history. The most number of outages was 234,000 during the ice storm of December 13th, 2000. The number of power outages in association with Hurricane Ike topped the September 2005 recovery from Hurricane Rita by nearly 1000 customers. The storm also produced tornadoes across portions of north central Louisiana as well as south central Arkansas and east central Texas.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 136483. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.