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It was a winter storm unlike any seen in this area for decades. A combined Wednesday-Thursday snowfall, measured as high as 12 inches in some places, closed schools, stranded drivers and collapsed roofs all over North Texas.
It looked beautiful, and it made for some great snowman-building – but it brought its share of havoc, too.
No business took a harder hit than Garcia’s Tire & Detail Shop, located in the 11000 block of FM 730 South. A solid foot of snow covered a 30-by-60 foot section of the store’s awning. With a square foot of snow weighing in at about 20 pounds, that mass of snow equalled over 36,000 pounds – and the roof did not hold. The snow made a crushing entrance into all five of the shop’s service bays. “It’s just amazing,” said Patricia Garcia, who along with her husband Richard has owned the tire and auto shop for seven years. “The awning has withstood high winds, even tornados – but not this much snow. It’s gut-wrenching. We’ve had better days.”
That seemed to be the motto shared by many Azle area residents. Eagle Mountain Memorial VFW Post #2137 on FM 730 North saw the metal roof on its building collapse due to the weight of about a foot of snow, doing considerable damage to interior of the building. Luckily, no one was injured. The post had a meeting scheduled Thursday night, but post commander Joe Holder called it off. He wasn’t worried about the roof, but he didn’t want anyone getting hurt in the streets. “I didn’t even think about the roof falling in,” he said. With the VFW Hall in disrepair, the post had to cancel a Valentine’s Day party and a memorial service for a woman who had died the week before of cancer. The Saginaw and Weatherford VFW posts have offered their space while repairs are made. The heavy snowfall also broke hundreds of tree limbs, knocking out basic phone and cable services. Even folks with satellite dishes found themselves on ladders trying to sweep the snow off their receivers so they could watch TV. Even more serious, some area residents lost power as temperatures plunged. Some Lakeside residents were without power from Thursday afternoon until Sunday night. Estimates regionwide indicated that as many as 500,000 people were without power at one time or another. Police and fire emergency service responders were kept busy around the clock. The Azle Fire Department responded to 18 calls concerning power lines between 1:22 p.m. Feb. 11 and 7:53 p.m. Feb. 12. Briar volunteer firefighter Travis Reed, one of many firefighters responding to a fire at the Azle Sonic restaurant Thursday night, said he had his crew had been out all day helping cars get out of ditches. The Azle Police Department didn’t escape the workload either. Cpl. Mike Winterrowd said Azle police offered assistance to 23 cars stuck in ditches. Emergency vehicles fell victim to the snowblast as well. One Azle police car, attempting to negotiate a curve in the 500 block of Stewart Street on Friday, slid off the roadway and into a ditch. That same day, an Azle ambulance heading north in the 200 block of Lakeside Drive found its way into a ditch while trying to respond to an emergency call. While sliding out of control, the ambulance – obviously unable to stop – took out a stop sign. An 18-wheeler swerved across two lanes of Highway 199 Thursday morning, causing a traffic backup. The backup could have been worse had more cars dared to venture out into the snow that day. By Saturday afternoon, things in and around Azle had pretty much gotten back to normal – save for some continuing power outages. And by Wednesday the Garcias, like many of their fellow Azleites, were almost back to normal. The mangled metal awning has since been removed, allowing the store to get back to business. All services are being provided. “I think we’re getting to the point we can laugh about it – at least a little,” Patricia said. |
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