Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Noisy storms shake the area

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Tuesday, May 22, 2001
Noisy storms shake the area
Today should be calmer, drier, forecasters say
By Sara Lee Fernandez And Neal Falgoust
Caller-Times
   Thunderstorms rumbled through the Coastal Bend Monday night bringing booming thunder, lightning, which knocked out power, and reports of hail.
   "It's been hailing up a storm out here and raining up a storm," said J.D. Kirby who lives in the Flour Bluff area. "It's really coming down," he said adding that the dime-sized hail had been intermittent.
   About three-fourths of an inch of rain was reported at the Corpus Christi International Airport Monday night, but the National Weather Service had reports of as much as 1.5 inches in some parts of the city, said Meteorologist Tom Dever.
   Forecasters from the National Weather Service said the area should be dry today as cloudy skies in the morning give way to more sun. High temperatures today will be in the low 80s inland and near 80 at the coast, Dever said.
   No rain is expected in the next several days.
   But on Monday night, the storms brought reports of hail in Jim Wells and Live Oak counties and scattered power outages that set off alarms.
   "Basically that's what we've been chasing," said District Fire Chief Randy Page of the Corpus Christi Fire Department.
   The weather gave firefighters some help in putting out a small brush fire on Park Road 22 about 4.5 miles into Kleberg County. Firefighters let the rain extinguish the small blaze and then assured that it didn't re-ignite, officials said.
   The storm caused scattered outages including an 8:45 p.m. outage at Driscoll Children's Hospital, but hospital officials said Driscoll's generator kicked in automatically and the transition was made smoothly.
   Corpus Christi police and fire officials said the weather also was involved in several traffic collisions, but none appeared to have caused serious injures.
   Robstown police officials reported rain and thunder, but no weather-related accidents. Kleberg County officials said the storm passed much of the county by and Duval County officials reported rain, but no severe weather.
   A similar storm system also moved through parts of the region Sunday dumping what observers with the National Weather Service described as golf-ball sized hail and whipping up gusts near 60 mph.
   Damage from Sunday's storm was reported in Live Oak, McMullen and Duval counties. Weather officials were in those areas Monday to estimate the strength of the storm based on the damage that occurred, Dever said.
   Law enforcement officials in the counties said there were isolated reports of fallen limbs and damaged cars. In Three Rivers, strong winds ripped part of a roof off Our Savior Lutheran Church.
   The Rev. Craig Sturm, pastor of the church, said damage was limited to the fellowship hall, where the congregation has Sunday school.
   He said a portion of the building's metal roof landed in a field next to the church. The whole roof will have to be replaced, but damage was isolated enough so that weekend services will not be interrupted.


KRIS 6 News and staff writers Mary Moreno and Paula Caballero contributed to this report. Contact Neal Falgoust and Sara Lee Fernandez at 886-3767 or fernandezs@caller.com

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