Heavy rain, possible tornado blows through Grayson County

May 26--Another wave of severe weather ravaged Texoma on Monday, bringing rain, wind and even a tornado. Monday's severe weather affected several areas of the state and caused Governor Greg Abbott to add to the number of Texas counties covered by a disaster declaration.

The severe weather started in the area at about 2 p.m. It included flash flooding and what the Grayson County Office of Emergency Management believes to have been a tornado, said OEM Director Sarah Somers. There were several sightings of the possible tornado, which started in Sherman and then later moved to Denison. There was a trail of damage and power outages that seems to support that the tornado moved that direction, Somers said.

The Grayson County OEM is currently assessing the damage. As of Monday evening, Somers said that she was only aware of one injury related to the severe weather. Two buildings were destroyed in the storm, one in Sherman and one in Denison. Forty other areas around the County were affected by damaged trees, damaged power lines and other types of weather-caused damage.

Somers said that she does not yet have an estimation of how much monetary damage the storm caused. The OEM is working with Grayson Disaster Relief and other non-profits to address the needs of those affected by the storm. Grayson County residents can report damage that their property sustained on the County website at www.co.grayson.tx.us. They should also report the damage to their insurance carriers.

Todd Thompson with Oncor Electric Delivery said the company was working to restore power to a couple hundred residents in the area. He said the outages were not all clustered in any one area, but spread out over the County. He said downed tree limbs and lightening are generally the culprits in such instances and that seemed to be the case Monday afternoon. He had no estimate on when the customers would have their power restored, but said they would keep working until that happened.

The heavy rain kept water levels at Lake Texoma rising. According to a statement from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District Assistant Project Manager Paul Balkenbush, the elevation of Lake Texoma as of Monday evening was "642.31 feet and rising."

"The pool is forecasted to rise to 642.7 by 29 May. This projection was made considering ongoing releases and NO additional rainfall in the drainage basin above Denison Dam," Balkenbush said. "Releases through both hydropower generators are being made at full capacity, 9,000 cfs. A release through three flood conduits is being made at 36,000 cfs total. A release over the spillway is occurring and estimated to be about 18,500 cfs. This release changes with pool elevation."

The severe weather, flooding and damage prompted Monday Governor Greg Abbott to add additional counties the disaster declaration for the state. Grayson County and Fannin County are among the affected counties.

More severe weather is expected for the area before this week. Somers suggested that residents have a plan for what to do in severe storms, like taking cover in a tornado shelter or another safe area.

Monitoring the weather is also of utmost importance, she said. Residents should frequently check whether updates, whether it be on the radio, TV or Internet. People should also have more than one warning system, as weather warning systems can fail. Weather warning systems should not just be on your phone, Somers said, in case your phone runs out of batteries, breaks or is compromised in any way.

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