‘It’s Quite Messy’: Dallas Residents Count Their Blessings as They Dig Out From Storm

Erin Willis’s Lake Highlands home bore the fury of Sunday’s storm, when an uprooted tree turned into a missile that struck her home. Willis’ daughter, who was home when the tree hit, told her “it sounded like an earthquake.”The same tree also knocked down power lines, leaving Willis and her family without electricity, forcing them to move out. A couple of streets away, Monica Hauser’s home was mostly undisturbed. Hauser’s lights flickered, but she never lost power.“We’re really lucky. It could have been much, much worse,” Hauser said.A woman died and at least five more people were injured when a crane fell into an Old East Dallas apartment building as storms pummeled the Dallas area.Thousands of residents — from North Dallas to Oak Cliff to Lake Highlands and in between — grappled Monday with the realities of property damage, streets and yards littered with debris and loss of power. Some counted their blessings.Here are reports from neighborhoods hit by Sunday devastating storm:Lake HighlandsA couple of streets away from Hauser’s home, Kerry Rike’s house didn’t have power Monday afternoon. Rike said his wife was told they probably wouldn’t have electricity until 9 p.m. Monday.“What’s weird is we lost electricity after the storm and our neighbors have power, so it’s really spotty,” Rike said.Rike pointed out a neighbor’s house where two unoccupied cars were pinned down by uprooted trees. “That guy got a lot more damage, but at least the trees didn’t hit his house,” he said.Hauser said Lake Highlands residents were quick to help each other out on Sunday and continued cleaning up the neighborhood on Monday.“We had put tree branches outside, hoping to cut them today, but within a couple of hours a neighbor had cut them,” she said. “All the neighbors were out cleaning and helping. That’s Lake Highlands for you.”- Maria Mendez  Continue reading...