Straight-line wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour caused damage in cities across north Texas Thursday night as a line of severe thunderstorms moved through. The winds damaged buildings and knocked down power lines. At one point, more than 275,000 customers of Oncor were without electricity.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins is urging anyone with a downed power line in their neighborhood to stay away from it.
"Power on the line can arc, even if you're not touching it...it can get to you," he said.
Dallas Fire-Rescue crews responded to 40 motor vehicle calls and more than 70 calls about downed power lines or problems with power transformers.
North Richland Hills had damage across the city. Crews will be out today surveying damage and overseeing the response.
In Balch Springs, a warehouse is closed today because of wind damage. Part of the roof of the building at 635 and Lake June Road collapsed. There were no injuries.
"Winds were gusting pretty good, estimates are between 65 mph and 75 mph," said Brad Harris with Balch Springs Emergency Management. "In storms like this you're going to have damage - there's no way to stop that."
Another building was damaged in the town of Little Elm. The facade of the La Azteca meat market and grocery on West Eldorado Parkway was blown onto several cars in the parking lot.
"It had an ornamented top and the back of the store faces north, so the wind just pushed it all off...and it all fell on the cars out front. It's horrible," said Steven, who witnessed some of the damage and called in to KRLD.
City officials say it does appear to be damage from straight line winds.
"They were on the heavier side from what normally comes in with a thunderstorm," said Little Elm Town Manager Matt Mueller. "Those straight line winds certainly had some impacts around the community,"
In McKinney, high winds blew four 18-wheelers off Highway 75 south-bound at Bloomdale. Traffic was affected for several hours.
Police in Weatherford say they believe a tornado touched down in their town. The Weatherford ISD is closed today.
The high winds caused some tense moments for passengers at DFW Airport. While a large number of flights were canceled at both Love Field and DFW on Thursday, some planes were able to make it in before the storms hit.
"In my 35 years of flying, I've never landed right before a storm was hitting," said Debra, who works as a flight attendant. "I just was so thankful we were able to touch down. We got in safely and were able to get to the gate right away, which was great. The captain had made the announcement to make sure everyone got off the plane as soon as possible. The plane started rocking...so we all got in just in the nick of time."
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