Last night, a couple hours before midnight, a flash of light lit up my bedroom, followed quickly by thunder booming. And then it happened again. And again. I did not think we were scheduled to have a thunderstorm.
And then rain began pouring down.
Also not on the schedule.
By dawn's early light, at my location, there was little to be seen indicating a storm had passed by in the night. Just a few puddles of water.
Even though the outer world was hot, at the time of my regularly scheduled walk, and even though rain would increase the humidity, some clouds were blotting out some of the incoming sun rays. And so I decided to go to Lucy Park for the first time in a couple weeks.
When I got to the first traffic light on Kemp Boulevard, it was not working. When the next traffic light was also dark I thought there must be a power outage. Each traffic light was out as I continued north on Kemp. And then as I came to the end of Kemp, at its intersection with the Seymour Highway I saw the roof torn off an apartment complex, with one wall blown in, exposing the apartment's interior.
Then, turning right onto the Seymour Highway I started seeing all sorts of destruction. Some buildings totally destroyed. Signs blown down. Lots of damage.
I wondered if a tornado had done this damage. And why was there no mention of this in this morning's Wichita Falls Times News Record, a newspaper I have previously indicated was a pitiful excuse for a newspaper. Even worse than the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Taking a left from the Seymour Highway, on the road that leads to Lucy Park, I saw a power pole down, with its transformer on the ground.
As soon as I entered Lucy Park I was seeing a lot of damage. Trees yanked out of the ground. Limbs blown off trees. A big mess.
The paved trail was blocked by fallen trees in multiple locations. I took photos of some of this, which is what you are looking at above, and below.
That is the Circle Trail, as it circles through Lucy Park you are seeing blocked by a windfall.
Here the wind blew a limb onto a light pole.
Crews were busy cleaning up this mess at another section of the park.
Another Circle Trail blockage.
A windfall pile by the burned out Lucy Park Japanese Pagoda.
More Circle Trail blockage.
At the Lucy Park Duck Pond I came upon some people clearing debris from that location. I asked if they knew if this was a tornado which did all this damage.
No.
I was told it was an extremely powerful burst of straight line wind. I have experienced the straight line wind phenomenon twice. It is a scary thing to experience.
I was told that there was a lot of damage to be seen as you drive west on the Seymour Highway.
And so, upon leaving Lucy Park I drove west on the Seymour Highway. There were a lot of looky-loos doing the same. I saw several buildings badly damaged, ripped apart, roofs blown off. Blown down signs.
By the time I got to the west entry to the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area the scenes of destruction had ended.
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