The rain poured in during an early Wednesday morning storm that prompted the National Weather Service to send out multiple severe weather alerts for Ector County.
NWS advised thunderstorm and flood advisories until 11:30 a.m.
Odessans experienced heavy rainfall, pea- to penny-sized hail, lightning and high winds.
At Midland International Airport, rainfall numbers totaled 99 one hundredths of an inch — nearly a full inch. Rainfall numbers were taken at 3 a.m., 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Odessa Police Department spokesperson Cpl. Steve LeSueur said over the phone the department responded to 13 crashes, six assist motorist calls, four traffic hazard calls and two high-water rescues Wednesday morning. The high-water rescue calls were near Dixie Boulevard and Center Avenue at around 8:26 a.m. and the other was near 87th Street and Andrews Highway.
Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said the only weather-related calls received by the Ector County Sheriff’s Office were a stranded motorist near 91st Street and Lamar Avenue and an abandoned vehicle near the intersection of 46th Street and Coliseum Road that appeared to have drowned out and then was abandoned by the driver.
Gus Ortega, Oncor Electric customer operations manager, said there were about 200 outages caused by the storms early Wednesday. He said at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday that all outages had been taken care of. Ortega also said if anyone sees downed power lines they should stay away and call 911.
“It was sort of a quiet morning so far,” Ortega said. “We didn’t have a whole bunch of customers affected by the storm. We had some equipment failure due to lightning from this morning’s storm, but we got those taken care of already.”
Thursday’s forecast shows a high of 78 degrees and it’s expected to be partly sunny with a strong chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, according to AccuWeather.com. There’s also a 55 percent chance of precipitation.
