This storm came through Austin, Texas on the evening of August 11, 2003. People initially thought a tornado must have struck the neighborhood, but weather experts say it was a downdraft or microburst or something with 70 to 80 mile per hour winds. This was fortunately localized to just one neighborhood of town. Many large trees were snapped off or uprooted and some apartments a few blocks from me lost their roofs and had to be evacuated. I am glad I was at work that evening - I think I might have freaked out if I'd been home. Fortunately, in spite of all the damage, I have not heard that anyone was actually hurt in this storm.

The big juniper or "red cedar" trees in the area were shredded and I saw several good sized trees snapped off at about 4 or 5 feet off the ground, but what impressed me was the number of trees in this area, some of them quite large, that were just yanked completely out of the ground roots and all.

Photos that have titles starting with "storm" were taken the morning after the storm before the cleanup and repair crews had arrived. Photos that have titles starting with "aftermath" were taken the following Saturday - a few trees had been cut down, but the removals did not begin until Monday. The images were reduced in size and compressed 10% to reduce file size.

A correspondent notes that the damage was more widespread than I had thought at the time.

"... damage was much more widespread than what you have mentioned. I was in driving from the airport at the time and had just turned east on 290 from 183 when the lights all went out along 290. Powerlines were on the road, telephone poles and wooden signs were snapped off and lying in the road. It hailed all along 290 from north of 183 to Parmer. Trees and branches were in the road in Harris Branch, hail was piled up along the side of the road on Parmer between Harris Branch and Dessau. Between Dessau and I35, north of Parmer, almost all the houses had roof damage and fence damage. I'd say 98% of the houses in Harris Ridge and Harris Ridge Village got new roofs.

The powerline over I35 went down south of Parmer, and of course the area you mentioned was damaged too. "