Clean up begins in Johnson City after severe weather

Rudy Koski
·2 min read

JOHNSON CITY, Texas - Security camera video from the Johnson City Bank showed how quickly light rain can become a raging hail storm.

Those who saw it coming ran for cover. People like Ali Dameron.

"I jumped in my truck because I live in a manufactured home, so I headed for cover and it just kind of went over us, but it was just right down the road from us and then it hit here. Pretty scary," said Dameron.

Images sent to FOX 7 Austin showed hail stones as large as baseballs and some even the size of grapefruit.

"I’ve lived here most of my life and never seen it like this before, ever," said Lisa Lusk.

RELATED: PHOTOS: Severe weather drops softball-sized hail in central Texas

Leaves shredded from trees filled the streets on Friday around Johnson City. Several cars were also left with busted windshields.

Steven Rogers, who lives on the southeast side of town, said he and his wife Ashley got home just before the storm hit.

"We definitely dodged a bullet. We parked our car underneath here right before the storm hit. We are at a baseball game. We got shut down because of lightning," said Rogers.

A family member urged them to get home as soon as they could.

"My mother-in-law saw it coming on the radar, and she said this was going to hit pretty soon, so we ran over here put our car under the carport, but a lot of other people weren’t so lucky," said Ashley Rogers.

Large hail also pounded Henly, a small community east of Johnson City. That's where Donavan Trahan's daughter lives.

"Yeah, it’s bad. That’s the third storm we got with hail," said Trahan.

Trahan manages the exotic resort zoo, which is located along Hwy 281, just north of Johnson City. It was open on Friday and all the animals that weathered the storm were not injured due to the zoo's shelters.

Even big animals like the giraffe had a place to ride out the storm, but a quick evacuation of some small birds was done as a precaution.

"No Ark being built, close, but not there yet," said Trahan.

Clean up around Johnson City on Friday moved as quickly as Thursday's storm, mainly because of the possibility of more rain this weekend.

City officials spent the day doing a damage assessment to determine whether a disaster declaration could be made. At last count, little more than 30 homes were damaged.