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Area residents got a taste of life in the
“windy city” last week as a strong wind “event” battered DeLeon, and
surrounding areas, for more than 12 hours late Tuesday night and into
Wednesday morning. Some meteorologists estimated that there were wind
gusts up to 50 miles an hour.
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WIND
DAMAGE AT PEANUT COMPANY. Portions of the metal roof structure
overlaying a cold storage building fronting on Texas Street was
lifted by high winds Wednesday morning and deposited on top of a
taller building to the east on Houston Street. No injuries
resulted. |
In addition to rearranging lawn
furniture, blowing over a billboard (near First National Bank),
breaking a tree, and causing power outages, the strong wind blew the
roof off of a 14,600 square foot Golden Peanut brick cold-storage
building downtown. It did not leave the building completely exposed
because there was a conventional tar roof underneath. After becoming
airborne, a very large section of the roof landed approximately 100
feet away, on top of an adjacent Golden Peanut building.
“No product was damaged,” said Craig
Smith, plant manager of Golden Peanut. “We’ve got an outside
contractor and several Golden Peanut employees cutting it down and
clearing it out today (Thursday).”
Smith said that contrary to rumor, Golden
Peanut will not tear down the damaged building. “We have no plans to
tear it down,” he said, “we’re just going to repair it. Of course it
will take an extended period of time to do a complete renovation, so
we’re just making the necessary repairs right now.”
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MORE
WIND DAMAGE. Last Wednesday¹s high winds lifted the metal roof
structure overlaying the peanut cold storage building to the left
of the photo and a portion of it landed upside down against the
base of a taller building, both of which are owned by Golden
Peanut Co. |
Smith said that he was grateful that the
damaged roof landed on their own property. “It could have been so much
worse,” he said. “Hopefully we won’t have winds like this again.”
People up and down Texas Street reported
seeing or hearing the flying roof, including employees and patrons of
Guys and Gals Hair Shop. “We heard it,” said Baba Lamb, “and we ran
outside and it had already come down on the other building. I told
everybody to get back inside.”
Bart Smith, of Comanche County Tractor,
said he just happened to be looking out the door, when the roof came
off. “There was a loud rumble,” Smith said, “and it blew up and landed
on that other building.” Several people at Stephen’s Feed heard the
commotion, including Billy Joe Hare. “I didn’t know what was
happening,” Hare said, “but it was loud -- it made a lot of noise.”
Jim Bob Wofford said he was moving a
vehicle and was out in the street when he noticed, in the rear view
mirror, the huge section of airborne roof. “It was just floating in
the air,” he said. “It was just kind of balanced for a second and then
it was kind of weaving up and down. I jumped out of the car, and when
I did, I heard it crash. It wasn’t just crash, it was ‘crash,
pow-pow-pow,’ I’m guessing that was electrical, but I don’t know. I’m
not sure how much metal was up in the air, but it looked to me like
maybe 50 or 75 feet. I’ll tell you what it reminded me of, those old
sci-fi movies where the sea monster comes out of the water. It was a
scary looking sight. I sure wish I’d had a camera.” |
