‘Most terrifying thing I've ever seen,' Western Tarrant County neighbors clean up after severe weather

A long night of severe weather became a long cleanup day for many neighbors in western Tarrant County.

"Well, you can see: No windshields, I mean, this is a customer's car," said Tony Fontaine of Special Touch II Auto Sales on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth.

Several of his customers' and inventoried cars had holes and broken windows from the overnight hail.

Neighbors in Fort Worth's Edge Park neighborhood dealt with flooded homes. Despite some building damage, the school remained in session at Western Hills High School.

“It started lightning and thundering real bad, and it was hitting the ground, just all around me," said Brad Dunaway, a homeowner in White Settlement who considers himself lucky because a fallen tree had missed his home and brand new trailer.

In White Settlement, Police Chief Christopher Cook said wind was the main culprit, wreaking havoc on the little town and downing six power poles, four of them in one RV park on North Cherry Lane.

“We never really get too alarmed over here, it seems to go over us a lot," said property manager Eileen Bass.

But this time, the storm came right at them.

“I got a call from these kids over here," she pointed, "Saying their trailer, the wheels went up and came down, and they were scared, so we went and got them and brought them over to us.”

Then, Bass said she went to help an older neighbor.

“Somebody screamed, ‘There’s a fire at your mom’s house!’” Bass recalled. “I was hysterical.”

She said electrical equipment had sparked a tree fire.

“As the wires would hit, it was like an explosion," Bass said. “That was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen."

“It was like fireworks coming all the way out here into the road, you were being hit with sparks," she added.

Bass said around 40 people were on the lot, and nearly all had to evacuate.

“Everybody had to get out because of the flames that was shooting out of the trees, and the tree caught on fire about five times last night," she said.

Crews were on-site late into the afternoon, working to restore power.

"It was an extremely long night. I have had no sleep, yet. Then, we dealt with flooding: The park was flooded, the roads were flooded. I mean, it was just a long, long, night,” said Bass, who said she made sure everybody got motel rooms and had a safe place to go.

Chief Cook said the wind also overturned a commercial truck, and surveillance video from a business shows their garage blowing off.

Even Cook's department had to operate without power for a while until their generator kicked in.

“Our dispatch center couldn’t hear any of the radio traffic, so, they were having to communicate emergency calls through cell phones," Cook said. “It’s like the old days, you get your pen and paper out, and you write people’s information down when they call 911.”

He said there's no damage estimate yet, but Bass estimates at least in her park, it'll be tens of thousands of dollars.

For those in the City of Fort Worth, the city said staff is assessing the damage now.

If you need help with fallen tree limbs and/or storm debris, you can contact the City’s Call Center at 817-392-1234 or 1234@fortworthtexas.gov. You can also report issues on the MyFW app.

PHOTOS: Hail, lightning and damage after storms in North Texas on Oct. 4, 2023