WILLIS, Texas — The thunderstorm that blew through Montgomery County Tuesday afternoon caused a lot of damage in the Cape Malibu subdivision near Lake Conroe.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service determined a microburst with estimated wind gusts of 80 mph caused the damage. Law enforcement in the area initially thought it was a tornado.
“I got an alert on my phone that a tornado had hit here in Willis," Montgomery County Precinct One Constable Philip Cash said.
He lives in the neighborhood where the storm hit.
“I got calls from neighbors saying we had trees down on houses and vehicles and power lines were down,” Cash said.
Jorge Vargas was on his way home when his wife called to say the winds coming off the lake were really scary. He couldn't get into the neighborhood because of downed power lines across the roads.
“It’s a little unnerving. My family’s been here 30-plus years and we’ve never seen trees down like this,” Vargas said.
Trees fell on his house and on his parents' nearby home. Their fence was also knocked down.
Precinct 2 Sgt. Jason Smith said they did an aerial survey and it looked like mostly roof damage from trees but not major structural damage. He estimated 12 to 24 homes were damaged but said there were no reports of injuries.
Smith said they were waiting for the power to be shut off so they could get heavy equipment into the neighborhood to start cleaning up.
KHOU 11 Chief Meteorologist David Paul will be in Cape Malibu with a team from the National Weather Service today to survey the damage.