Yes, according to national weather officials, Amarillo is the windiest city in the United States — we’re all used to it. But yesterday was beyond ridiculous. From about 9:00 yesterday morning until almost 9:00 last night, we all endured sustained wind speeds of 50-70 miles per hour with frequent gusts of over 75 to 80. The Amarillo airport recorded a gust of 81 miles per hour early yesterday afternoon which prompted the evacuation of the traffic control tower and the cancellation of all flights into and out of our city. Eighteen-wheelers were flipping over on both I-40 and I-27, major highways were blocked, trains were de-railing, trees were breaking in half, street signs and billboards were snapping in two, power lines were going down, roofs were being ripped off, there were whitecaps in our toilets — it was absolutely surreal. Watch these local news stories below for the video of the trucks and trains flipping over and the widespread damage in Amarillo.
Click here and here and here and here.
Fences are down and shingles are gone in our southwest Amarillo neighborhood. But we didn’t sustain any personal damage at our place — just a bunch of limbs, none of them too big. The only broken thing I can see from our house is the street sign at the corner, bent over at the ground and lying in the street.
Straight line winds. Not a tornado or hurricane. Straight winds. For twelve solid hours.
When it finally stopped, everybody fell down.
Peace,
Allan
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