How did everybody in the RGV fare?

Driving around I can't believe how extensive and widespread the damage is.

Gonna be a while before we fully recover.

I can't believe the amount of intersections with no street lights or even temporary stop signs.

Driving back from a quince Saturday night down Business 83 from like Los Ebanos road I blew through a couple of intersections that I didn't realize were usually stop lights. Then again, it wouldn't have been safe to stop for very long either.

McAllen Country Club golf course is gonna be closed for a few more days I think. Extensive tree damage all over.

I played Tierra Santa this morning and Weslaco seemed to escape most of it although I heard some some trailer parks got hit. The golf course was fine - they lost a handful of trees but it was no big deal.

We were lucky. We live off of 6th and Nolana and our trees were young enough to just bend. I think my neighbor's giant house to my west saved us mostly.

Here's the official NWS survey report

Quote:

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Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Brownsville TX
1235 PM CDT Mon May 1 2023

...NWS Damage Surveys for April 29th Lower/Mid Valley
Thunderstorm Wind Event Finds 70 to 85 mph Estimated Peak Gusts...

.Update...This is an update of the preliminary survey issued on
Saturday evening April 29th.

.Overview...A rapidly developing and accelerating squall line
raced through the populated Lower Rio Grande Valley region of
Texas, initially producing large hail up to golfball size in
southern Zapata and southwestern Starr County before evolving
into the squall line that produced wind damage from southern Starr
County through southern portions of Hidalgo and Cameron County.
The initial hail reports occurred from 1005 PM through 1130 PM
April 28th, with the swath of wind damage occurring between 1130
PM April 28th and 130 AM April 29th.

Significant wind damage began near La Joya and Sullivan City
(Hidalgo County) near the Starr County line just after midnight
April 29th, continuing through Penitas, then the population
centers of Mission, McAllen and Pharr, before moving toward the
Rio Grande and impacting locations south of Donna, Weslaco, and
Mercedes. The core of the significant wind tracked along the Rio
Grande in southwestern Cameron County before weakening along and
south of the river by 130 AM.

Lesser, but still notable, damage occurred along Interstate
Highway 2 between Weslaco and Harlingen, as well as in Brownsville
(Cameron County).

Twp survey teams investigated the damage from Mission in Hidalgo
County through southwest Cameron County along the Rio Grande.
Those results are described below. Due to time constraints, the
survey teams were unable to look at damage in extreme southwest
Hidalgo County between Sullivan City and Penitas.

Damage from the macroburst was extensive. Hundreds of buildings,
many of substandard construction, had damage to roofs, siding,
metal doors, and soffits. Several poorly anchored or poorly
constructed buildings collapsed. Dozens, if not hundreds, of
power poles and power lines were damaged or blown down, and
preliminary estimates indicated somewhere between 150 and 200
thousand regional customers lost power during the height of the
storm. Thousands of healthy hard and softwood tree limbs fell, and
hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted.

Damage to buildings, infrastructure, and trees/crops is likely to
be in the tens of millions of dollars, if not more. Those details
will be available at a later date.


Thunderstorm Wind 1: McAllen to Progresso, Hidalgo County Texas...

Peak Wind /E/: 75 to 85 mph
Path Length /statute/: 25.8 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 6 miles
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 0

Start Date: Apr 29 2023
Start Time: 1223 AM CDT
Start Location: 1 NW Mission / Hidalgo TX
Start Lat/Lon: 26.2330 /-98.3990

End Date: Apr_29_2023
End Time: 1253_AM CDT
End Location: Progreso / Hidalgo TX
End Lat/Lon: 26.0950 / -97.9530


NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley survey team #1's damage track
began along the Interstate Highway 2 (IH-2) frontage road just
east of Bryan Road in mission, where a large metal-pole billboard
was uprooted and cladding of a new warehouse was pulled off. Other
damage, not surveyed, in Mission included a partial roof and wall
collapse at a self-service car wash.

Damage peaked across the City of McAllen, where some of the
highest ground-level wind speeds (85 mph) were estimated. The most
notable damage was found at McAllen's Miller International
Airport, where a tied-down Cessna was flipped, a Gulfstream jet
was turned, and a smaller aircraft was totaled. A fairly new TPO
flat roof system was lifted from a low-rise hotel about a half
mile east of the airport. The wind may have been higher at the
elevation of the roof. Other notable surveyed damage included a
flipped very large station canopy at 23rd and Lark, which had
considerable rust on several connecting poles. Poorly anchored
roofs were lifted off a number of buildings along and near
Business 83, including to a local older motel. Asphalt and barrel-
tile shingles were lifted off several higher roofs at two or
three story buildings across the survey track. Two 2x4 beams were
blown from a rusting scaffold into the fiberglass of the cab of a
city public works truck in north McAllen. Dozens of fallen wooden
power poles were seen by the survey team, along with hundreds of
fallen mesquite and live oak limbs and dozens of snapped or
uprooted live oak, ash, and palm trees. Dozens of street signs
supported by lightweight metal poles were bent to the ground,
dozens of traffic light arms at about 15 to 20 feet above ground
were turned, and dozens of vinyl/paper/plastic billboard signs,
30 to 50 feet above ground, were blown out of their casings.

Damage continued into the City of Pharr, where several rips were
noted in the retaining fence at a commercial golf range. Other
damage in Pharr and the south portions of the Cities of San Juan
and Alamo was not surveyed. The team surveyed neighborhoods north
of Military Highway (U.S. 281) from south Donna east to Progreso.
Additional tree and fence damage was common, but notable was a
four-foot poorly anchored masonry wall was blown down in south
Weslaco, and several well-built homes with shingle damage between
south Weslaco and the Rio Grande.

Damage was highest to structures and roof coverings...largely
substandard or not to appropriate specifications...exposed fully
to the downburst winds that came from the west-northwest. Nearly
all of the damage from Pharr to Progreso was estimated to be from
75 to 80 mph winds.



Thunderstorm Wind 2: Progreso (Hidalgo County Texas) to Los Indios (Cameron County Texas)...

Peak Wind /E/: 70 to 80 mph
Path Length /statute/: 16.2 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 1.52 miles
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 0

Start Date: Apr 29 2023
Start Time: 1253 AM CDT
Start Location: Progreso / Hidalgo TX
Start Lat/Lon: 26.0900 / -97.9500

End Date: Apr 29 2023
End Time: 110 AM CDT
End Location: 1.8 E Los Indios / Cameron TX
End Lat/Lon: 26.0440 / -97.6990

NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley survey team #2's damage track
began in Progreso and continued along and near Military Highway
(U.S. 281) to just east of Los Indios in southwest Cameron County.
Peak winds were 70 to 75 mph from near Progreso toward the
Cameron/Hidalgo County line, but increased again to 75 to 80 mph
from the County line into Santa Maria and Los Indios. Damage
included a few more partial tin/light metal roofs lifted to a home
and a warehouse, at least a dozen snapped trees and many more
large limbs, and one flipped tractor trailer.

Survey team #2 also investigated scattered damage from Weslaco to
Harlingen, along IH-2. The damage included a automobile showroom
window blown out in Harlingen, and more vinyl/plastic business signs
blown out from their casings and additional tree and power
line/power pole damage. Wind estimates in these areas was 65 to 70
mph, a little bit above values recorded at NWS Automated Surface
Observation Stations and Automated Weather Observing Stations at
airports along and near this part of the survey.

&&

NOTE:
The information in this statement is preliminary and subject to
change pending final review of the events and publication in NWS
Storm Data.

$$

52-Goldsmith

---

The worst of it was west Hidalgo County, from everything I've seen. Business partner called Sunday morning to ask how things were in Cameron County, which I thought was odd since I didn't know the severity of the storm. He said it looked like a post-hurricane scene in north McAllen.

Definitely not as bad in Harlingen/Cameron County as the Upper Valley. I was told today that McAllen CC golf course will be closed for 2 weeks to clean up. Said they had 54 trees come down. I was in McAllen Saturday evening and saw the nets at TopGolf were pretty shredded and they were closed. We had a big chunk of the netting surrounding the driving range at Harlingen CC come down. Surprisingly very little tree damage.

Yeah I think 2 weeks is the worst case scenario. I hope.

Over 150 poles!

Repairing or replacing a utility pole can take several hours to complete. The weekend storm damaged or knocked down over 150 distribution poles in Mission and its surrounding cities. This photo was taken today in the Palmview area. pic.twitter.com/SNGV4pzr42

— AEP Texas (@AEPTexas) May 2, 2023

All the years living in the RGV and even my years away I had not seen or heard of a storm this bad happening. Hope everyone faired well!

One blew through 10-12 years ago (maybe longer, I'm sure PJ could give a more exact year) or so that dropped massive hail in the greater McAllen area and caused a lot of roof and vehicular damage. There were videos out after with strip-center parking lots covered white with all the hail. Buddy of mine GMs the Luby's on N 10th and had some pretty amazing pics. Hail balls the size of oranges.

Either June 1st or June 2nd 1988 a very powerful storm hit the lower valley. I lived in Isla Blanca park at the time in a cobbled together double wide. I thought the mobile was gone, it moved it about a foot and broke several of the tie downs.

That was the storm that destroyed the old Sea Ranch hotel and covered boat slips on the east side. The "SEA" of the cursive Sea Ranch sign was inbedded into our roof, it was a 1" piece of marine plywood that had been attached with screws.

Crops from HRL to Bayview were flat and laid over, SPI had no power for 2 days. In reverse to this storm, it hit the upper valley but hammered the lower valley. We understood that winds were 90mph out of the north. It tore up several mobile homes and trailers in Isla Blanca and in PI. It was the catalyst for the park kicking permanent residents and semi permanent structures out as so many were torn up and owners just walked away.

That storm seemed more powerful than last Friday nights, but maybe because I was in a crap structure.

carl spacklers hat said:

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One blew through 10-12 years ago (maybe longer, I'm sure PJ could give a more exact year) or so that dropped massive hail in the greater McAllen area and caused a lot of roof and vehicular damage. There were videos out after with strip-center parking lots covered white with all the hail. Buddy of mine GMs the Luby's on N 10th and had some pretty amazing pics. Hail balls the size of oranges.

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Yeah we were in like a 3 block area that got leveled in that one. March of 2012 if I remember correctly.

We got $36,000 worth of damage and our tile roof was fine. 70 mph winds with like 20-30 minutes of golf ball size hail that knocked out every last bit of glass from our 3 front windows and filled those 3 rooms with hail. Super nuts. Front stucco wall was pretty messed up. There were a couple of homes that had upper floors collapse.

About a week later is when we got the much bigger hail. That storm wasn't a big deal but some cars and roofs got damaged.

Some nasty damage on the island this week.

https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/gallery-storm-causes-damage-on-south-padre-island/

El Castile took it on the chin. Might end up being a complete demo due to the damage.

Like I posted earlier in this thread, these storms that come out of the north seem to really pack a punch. The one that hammered SPI rolled through the upper valley and gathered steam towards the coast. Like the one I mentioned from 1988. That was a bad motor scooter and changed the Island more than I have seen any hurricane change it, in terms of physical structures.

Weather down here is 98.5% benign, but that 1.5% can be pretty unpredictable and severe.

The pic of the condo unit with the blown off roof is a unit that a friend of mine rents for the whole summer every year. Says the roof is still on the bedroom though!

Here we go again:

NWS Discussion

Quote:

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we're starting to see roughly 3 camps of solutions
emerge...

- The first (maybe worst-case) camp of solutions: Thunderstorm
cells merge Friday evening across Central/South Texas, form some
sort of MCS, then bow out to form a squall line as it moves
eastward across the South-Central part of the state (just to the
north of our CWA). Then a second MCS forms to the west of
Laredo and dives south- southeast along the Rio Grande, merges
with the squall line to the north to sweep east-southeastward
through Deep South Texas and the RGV during the day on Saturday.
Then showers and thunderstorms would form across parts of the
CWA Saturday night into Sunday morning.

- The second camp keeps most of that messy convective activity
out of our CWA until Saturday afternoon/evening, at which point
the storms could be pretty potent.

- The third camp follows the same pattern as the first camp,
except it keeps our CWA more stable following Friday
night/Saturday moring's storms inhibits any convective
development for Saturday evening.

With all of this activity, we're watching for the threat of
excessive rainfall leading to flooding and severe thunderstorms that
could bring damaging winds, large hail and even a tornado or two. A
Flood Watch is in effect for all of Deep South Texas and the Rio
Grande Valley from Saturday morning through midday Sunday, but due
to the messiness of the pattern, we could get heavy rainfall ahead
of or after this window by a few hours.

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At 4:01 AM CDT, Laguna Heights [Cameron Co, TX] EMERGENCY MNGR reports TORNADO. *** 1 FATAL *** CORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM LAGUNA HEIGHTS. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED MULTIPLE INJURIES AND PROPERTY DAMAGE. TIME OF EVENT ESTIMATED BY... https://t.co/dD9SUaFHGV pic.twitter.com/CeTpmjaN2o

— IEMBot BRO (@iembot_bro) May 13, 2023

*Preliminary damage assessment*: EF1 tornado damage with wind speeds around 86-105 mph possibly up to 110 mph occurred this morning between 4:01-4:06 AM in Laguna Heights. #rgvwx #txwx

— NWS Brownsville (@NWSBrownsville) May 13, 2023

Devastating images captured this morning by Griselda Mendoza in Laguna Heights. The Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator has reported tornado damage in the area. Hwy 100 is closed between Laguna Vista and Pt Isabel. #rgv #rgvwx pic.twitter.com/33CITPdgHd

— KRGV First Warn 5 (@KRGV_Weather) May 13, 2023

UPDATE: Between Laguna Heights & SH 48. https://t.co/WIwuxkTiMI

— TxDOT Pharr District (@TxDOTPharr) May 13, 2023

Quote:

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An overnight storm that blew through the Rio Grande Valley turned destructive and deadly in Laguna Heights.

At least one man was killed and at least a dozen other people were injured when a possible tornado struck the town at about 4 a.m.

Damage is extensive. Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Hushen says dozens of homes and apartment buildings were blown apart, power lines were torn down, and trees are uprooted. The Port Isabel Event Center is being used as an emergency shelter for storm victims.

State Highway 100 is closed between Laguna Heights and South Padre Island as crews work to clear the power lines and other debris. Officials have not said when the highway would reopen. Traffic is being rerouted to State Highway 48.

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