Severe thunderstorms moved through Denton early Tuesday morning, leaving trees and debris on roads, overturning trash cans and causing power outages and flash flooding across the region.
Dustin Sternbeck, chief communications officer for the city of Denton, said that at the peak of the outage early this morning, approximately 9,000 households in Denton were affected.
About 2,350 households are currently without power. The city and Denton Municipal Electric Company have updated citywide maps available here.
“We're just asking everyone to be a little patient right now,” Sternbeck said. “We are working hard to resolve every issue that arises.”
Sternbeck said the Denton Fire Department has responded to 56 calls for service since 5 a.m. and is deploying street crews to clear debris from roads around the city.
Denton police headquarters and the municipal building downtown were flooded, Sternbeck said. When he spoke to the Denton Record-Chronicle, he wasn't sure how bad the situation was at 9:45 a.m., but he would post an update online and on social media if a shutdown occurred.
The only road currently closed due to a water main break is Eagle Drive near Locust and Elm streets. Crews are working to repair it.
The outages were caused by a thunderstorm in Denton that produced large hail and straight-line wind gusts in excess of 80 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Fano said strong straight-line winds were responsible for tornado warnings going off in several areas of Denton County.
“The highest gusts were in the TWU area at 83 mph,” Fano said. “This is a bad deal. It's not unprecedented for us to have this kind of system, but we haven't seen a huge storm complex producing these kinds of winds in a long time.
Fano said the National Weather Service began issuing its first severe thunderstorm warning for the area at 3 a.m.
Fano said about 2 inches of rain fell in Denton County in the past 48 hours, with 3 inches falling in parts of Denton County, mainly in the southern part of the area near the Tarrant County line.
Flash flood warning in effect until 11am
Fano said the current rain will leave the area by noon, with scattered showers expected later this afternoon and another round of severe thunderstorms in the area later tonight and overnight.
Other Sternbeck highlights:
- If you visit the North Branch this morning, be sure to use the staff entrance.
- Denton Municipal Airport remains open.
- All park and recreation campground activities remain open (as of 9:45 a.m.)
- Waterworks Park and Civic Center pools will be closed Tuesday
- Denton County grand jury canceled
