Storms Knock Out Power, Cause Damage Across Abilene Overnight

Lightning lit the night sky over Abilene for what seemed like hours. Lightning strikes are being blamed for a series of small fire that sparked in Tye early Tuesday.

While thousands of people experienced power outages, others saw damage to their neighborhoods and homes.

From peeled roofs to blown sheds to tree limbs down, viewers across the area reported damage on the KTAB and KRBC Facebook pages.

Bigcountryhomepage.com storm chaser and producer Cody McDonell reported seeing a roof blown off a home at 277 and 1235 near a gas station. Cody described the scene as "roof is peeled back and metal is twisted off and thrown."

"The storm put our trampoline upside down and blew my daughters play house apart," said Tuscola resident Cynthia Louise Newman via Facebook. "I found the slide across the lan and I'll be lucky if I even find some of her outside toys."

The storm also brought small hail with it. While most of the stones weren't large enough to do any damage, they were big enough to make plenty of noise on windows and wake up sleeping residents.

A portion of the system over Coleman was severe enough for the National Weather Service to issue a tornado warning. Spotters on the north side of Coleman not seeing any rotation, according to KRBC Chief Meteorologist Randy Turner. However, the storm was caused for much-needed heavy rain.