Tuesday Afternoon Update: The National Weather Service has released a preliminary damage survey for the Lake Brownwood area following a tornado on Sunday, April 28th classifying Sunday’s weather damage to the Minton Draw area of Lake Brownwood as an EF-1 tornado. This is the second smallest category possible with Sunday’s tornado having wind speeds in excess of 105 miles per hour, according to NWS officials.
The survey states that the tornado traveled approximately 1.1 miles and was about 175 yards wide, and had traveled on the ground approximately 5 minutes. It touched down northeast of the Lake Brownwood State Park near the Nichols Ranch, continuing past the intersection of Park Road 15 and County Road 455, ending at the lake.Original Story: A Lake Brownwood neighborhood sustained significant storm damage from a severe thunderstorm which damaged several homes and many large trees in the area. As of Monday morning the winds were undetermined whether it was straight line winds or a small tornado.
Shortly after 11:00 p.m. Sunday, emergency responders were called to a report of damage in the Minton Draw area of Lake Brownwood, including a boat dock which was mangled and landed on a neighboring mobile home’s roof, a mobile home which was moved approximately 10 feet off of its foundation, many boat docks which were damaged and overturned during the storm and a horse barn, a short distance down from the area was stripped of its metal.
Shortly after the storm, Lake Bridge Volunteer Fire Department and Brown County Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene and checked on residents. Fortunately, the mobile home which was moved off of its foundation was a weekend residence for its owners and no injuries were reported. Comanche Electric Cooperative Association, the electric provider for the area, was called due to downed power lines.
Jan Clark, the resident of the mobile home which now has a roof covered in mangled iron and tin from the boat dock was home at the time and stated the storm blew through very quickly, in about ten minutes.
“I heard this rolling noise, sounded like tires rolling and rolling. It was over in no time, I didn’t even have time to get to the other end of my house,” said Clark. “It’s just crazy. There’s a boat dock on top of my house, and my house didn’t even wiggle.”
She explained that her mobile home was a 1969 model which was tied down, but that there wasn’t much other damage to the home other than the dock on the roof and large tree limbs that had been broken. One of her dogs was outside along with some cats, but they all survived the storm.
Another neighbor, Mike Snyder, whose property is a weekend residence, stated that a neighboring storage building was blown through his wrought iron fencing and into his pump house. Sheets of metal and insulation along with other debris were scattered on and around the back of the house. From his deck other damage to surrounding docks and trees could be seen as pictured below.
Evidence of about 1.25 inches of rain fell during the storm according to a rain gauge on one of the damaged properties.
Brownwood Water Improvement District officials were on scene, both on land and water, surveying the damage. A work crew of inmates from the Brown County Jail was helping to clear tree limbs and debris from the roadway and properties which suffered damage.
Pictured above is the mobile which was moved off of its foundation. Below are more photos of the damage.
