Holy Hailstorm, Batman!

verylowpriority · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:47 am Post subject: Holy Hailstorm, Batman!

Wow, it was some night here in downtown Austin.

Around 10 pm last night I was watching on the radar as a storm cell with rotation and a well-defined "hook echo" traipsed across the Hill Country and across the northern part of Travis County. Missed me, but probably made quite a mess along its path. Looked like it must've gone right across Chap Ice.

There was another vicious storm cell over Mason and Llano Counties at the time, but it appeared to be weakening slightly, and it was still a couple of hours away....so I went to bed.

Around 12:30 am this morning, I was awakened by the unmistakable sound of hail....like having a new roof put on by FIFTY roofers. And then, there were a hundred roofers! And then it got even worse.

I figured, well damn, I'd better take precautions, because the noise was so deafening that I'm not even sure I'd be able to hear the dreaded "freight train" noise if a tornado had formed. So I hopped out of bed and went into my walk-in bedroom closet.

I stayed in there for another four or five minutes -- it seemed like an hour -- and the noise was unbelievable. My heart was beating a mile a minute. My apartment is a "low-rise penthouse," five floors above ground, and facing northwest, precisely the direction from which the trouble was coming.

I was standing there in the closet, wondering how long this was gonna last, and whether this was how I was gonna die, when a hailstone the size of a baseball hit the top of my foot. In the closet! I was so startled I must've jumped about three feet in the air. I started looking all over the closet, above me, wondering where the hell it came from. No holes in the ceiling in here.

With five hundred roofers still hammering away, I peeked out of the closet toward the kitchen....and the floor was covered with hailstones! WTF??? How did THAT happen? Venturing three steps further, that's when I discovered that the wind had blown open the double-doors leading to my northwest-facing portico, and that a wind-propelled hailstone had shattered one of my living room windows. My living room was no longer "indoors."

What a mess....and the poor cat, when Mother Nature finally blew by me, it took me fifteen minutes just to find her.

Everything but the window seems to be ok, but the carpet is still pretty wet and I hope it won't need replacement. The good news is that it's rented carpet.

And the cat and I could both use a decent night's sleep.
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NHrow7 (1996-2006)

jlocke · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:19 am Post subject:

WOW! Glad that had a (somewhat) happy ending!

verylowpriority · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:56 am Post subject:

I'm tellin' ya....it was un-friggin-believable. I'm in a walk-in closet "in an interior portion of the building" when one of Mother Nature's hockey pucks gets shot through the open doors and window, hits the crossbar in the kitchen, caroms around the boards and hits me in the foot huddled in a dark closet.

I almost pissed myself.

(But I didn't have a cigarette, ain't that something? I'm still very proud of that. I even HAD a cigarette I could have smoked. But I didn't. And I haven't choked anybody.)
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NHrow7 (1996-2006)

zambonirodeo · Five for fighting Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 438

Glad you're ok. And glad I'm not there in my trailer! A friend of mine lost his back windshield and stereo speakers (and electricity)

verylowpriority · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject:

We lost some beautiful old trees downtown in the Enfield area just west of Guadalupe. I've been listening to chainsaws all day.
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NHrow7 (1996-2006)

bk · Gross Misconduct Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 1055

bk · Gross Misconduct Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 1055

We were watching that goddam "hook" come straight toward us here in P-ville. Luckily we end up getting nothing, but just a couple miles away people got pounded I guess.
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**Shanny** · The Goddess Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 1509

All kinds of hail in RR. Heavy rain and lots of wind. Lasted no more than half an hour.
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SinD · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject:

Dang, guess it does suck to be in Austin right now...glad everyones ok.

We got a lot of rain and some wind but that was about it...
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MRice62377 · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject:

Well, we were in a tornado here in Rogers/Heidenheimer. Jeremy can vouch for that. Lots of damage.
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zambonirodeo · Five for fighting Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 438

Man, remind me never to live near anyone from Kansas. I trust you are ok Mike?

verylowpriority · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 5:37 am Post subject:

zambonirodeo · Five for fighting Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 438

MRice62377 · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject:

Yes, we're all ok but lots of damage around here. Got alot of clean up and repair work.

We lost electricity for about 3/4 of the day. And my laptop has one of them remote cards in it.

Jason, we lost electricity because our pig got scared and jumped off his wheel to hide.
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Mike@jayhawkroofing.com

Heed these words, all who enter here:
Beware of the Phog. Rock Chalk!!!