The storm came from near Nashville at about the 11:00 p.m. hour, then moved southeast to affect Historic Washington State Park, then moving through Ozan, Oakhaven and finally Hope (especially the eastern part of the city). Spring Hill is also reported to have received hail. This is according to the county’s emergency management and 9/11 coordinator Cathy Aaron.
Precisely .95 inches were reported from a weather station in Hope, along with the notation that “around midnight some golf ball and larger hail fell here.”
For many in Hope, this would seem an understatement. Photos have been going around of hailstones much more toward the baseball or softball size than that of any Titleist. As Aaron said, though, damage was mostly to vehicles and some roofs.
The path of the storm as she described it, did spare one town that it was thought would receive a direct hit, but a few others weren’t so lucky.
“It came down from the Nashville area. McCaskill was supposed to get it, but it veered right so it missed McCaskill, and it came down and hit the Crossroads area and Washington. Spring Hill got some mail, but wasn't very much. The Hope area, and down into Shover Springs got the majority of the damage in the way of the wind, because they had a lot of trees over on Highway 32 and 278 and then a couple of trees on County Roads 52 and 54,” Aaron said.
In summary, Aaron said, things could have been worse. Though about three tornado warnings were called in Hempstead County, none appear so far to have touched down or done serious damage to dwellings.
“We did not have as much damage as we could have, but the size of the hail was probably the most. DeAnn had baseball size. And I think Shover Springs had some pretty big. The Rosston Road area had big hail. Instead of going straight across [from Nashville], like they believed it would, at first, it kind of made a dip, and came through Hope, Patmos and the Shover Springs area.”
At least one home in the Oakhaven area, belonging to SWARK.Today reporter and video producer April Lovette took some damage from flooding. A camper stored outside had skylights shattered by hail and wears a blue tarp in the photos she took.
On the campus of UAHT, Chancellor Ricky Tompkins said damage occurred on campus from hail and also to one of the UAHT’s vehicles parked at Historic Washington State Park during the James Black Bowie Knife Festival. “We've had some hail damage. We also had one of our vehicles over in Washington [hit]. But you know what? It could have been a whole lot worse.” No trees on the campus were affected, he said.
Over in Nevada County, where the hailstorm crossed into its southwest border around midnight Sunday, Emergency Management and 9/11 Coordinator David Gummerson said the primary problem was a power outage caused by winds blowing limbs down on powerlines. Most customers in the Prescott area had to wait until late Sunday afternoon before they got power back.
But another vital utility was knocked out for residents near Willisville, Gummeson said. “I've got several residents in Willisville that are without water and probably going to be without water for several days.”
The storm affected radio communications for first-responders, too, as the storm passed by. This was a result of frequent lightning strikes. But all in all, Nevada County, too, benefited from the lack of tornados touching down.
In the future, Gummeson said, two 4K cameras will be placed at northern and southern ends of the county as part of the new Hazcam App system. It should allow residents and others to better monitor conditions in Nevada County.
In the featured photo: Hailstones that fell in the Rosston Road area of Hope Saturday evening into Sunday morning as photographed by Kelly Wilcox (left) and Jennifer Hollis (right).
Below photos were taken by reporter April Lovette around her Oakhaven property.
