Local News
Twister confirmed
National Weather Service says tornado and straight-line winds caused local damage
San Marcos — It was a twister that touched down at the San Marcos Police Department Saturday morning, though elsewhere damage was mostly from straight-line winds, the National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed late Saturday.
"Based on the type and level of damage, the tornado was rated an F1 on the Fujita Scale," NWS meteoriologist Larry Eblen said. "The tornado path was estimated to be 100 yards wide and three-tenths of a mile long," beginning about a quarter-mile south of the police headquarters at 2300 IH 35 South.
Damage farther north including in the Dunbar neighborhood was due to "severe thunderstorm winds" estimated to have been between 70 and 80 mph, also known as "downburst winds," Eblen said.
The determination was made after a team from the NWS, accompanied by police, fire and emergency officials, toured the area to survey damage Saturday afternoon.
All along the storm's path the team found tin metal roofs torn and tossed, some several hundred feet, Eblen said. "At one location a large wooden deck was torn from a one-story building," he said, noting that "all the debris in this mile-long path was blown in the same direction — toward the north." That, he said, is indicative of straight-line winds.
"Much more significant," he said, was damage at police headquarters. "Just south of the building, metal roofs had been torn off a structure and tossed toward the north. In the south parking lot adjacent to the building, three telephone poles were blown down — one toward the west, one toward the north and one toward the south."
Eblen said further evidence of tornadic activity came from an officer who was in his car when the storm struck at 7:08 a.m.
"The officer reported that very high winds and heavy rain began blowing from north to south, then abruptly changed direction and began blowing from south to north, accompanied by penny-sized hail."
A total of 35 vehicles at the SMPD, most on the building's south side, were dented and gashed, with windows and windshields shattered. On the building's north side, a section of brick facade was, in Eblen's words, "ejected" from the top of a wall.
The Fujita Scale defines an F1 tornado as having winds between 113 and 157 mph, capable of producing "moderate damage" such as peeling roofs, pushing mobile homes off foundations and blowing automobiles off the road.
The American Red Cross had opened one shelter in Hays County by mid-day Saturday for those whose homes had been left uninhabitable.
amiller@sanmarcosrecord.com
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