Blown Away

The month of March definitely came in roaring like a lion for North Texas and residents in United’s service territory. 

A double-dose of thunderstorms and severe winds plagued United’s electric and high-speed internet systems during the first full week in March as severe weather toppled trees and branches, brought down power poles, whipped debris into the air and, in some cases, into United infrastructure.

United CEO Cameron Smallwood said the inclement weather gave the systems a beating and kept crews on their toes as they made repairs. Though damage was significant throughout the territory, United’s line crews and contractors managed to restore power within about a day of the destruction.

“These were some really significant storms,” said Smallwood. “United had to replace more than 100 broken poles, and some were practically brand new. That speaks to the power of the winds that these storms packed. However, co-op employees and our contract crews all worked together as a community. Everyone did a great job restoring outages quickly for the benefit of our members, and I know that our members appreciated it.”

The early morning of severe weather began near 3:30 a.m. March 4 as high winds from an oncoming cold front began sweeping through the area. According to the National Weather Service, violent thunderstorms that followed at 5:30 a.m. caused tornado sirens to blare in northern Johnson and southern Tarrant counties before the rains receded and straight-line winds as fast as 60 to 75 miles per hour brought down multiple poles and lines from breaking tree branches and blowing debris from buildings and other structures. Two EF1 tornados were recorded—one in Irving, and one in Wise County.

The morning’s violent storms were punctuated by a day of high winds and a West Texas dust storm later that afternoon, as 60 mile-per-hour winds tore through the state and blanketed North Texas in an eerie orange pall. 

At the windstorm’s height, about 3,600 United members had experienced an outage in Mansfield after a billboard blew down into power lines. 

United was far from being the only energy provider impacted. Oncor reported that, at the March 4 storm’s peak, more than 335,000 of its customers were without power, and about 70,000 were without power the next day. 

Four days later, United members were again rudely awakened between 4 and 5 a.m. March 8 as lightning-filled thunderstorms pelted the area with dime- to quarter-sized hail. The severe weather powered through with speeds of up to 80 to 90 miles an hour, blasting through the service territory, taking down more poles, blowing roofs from houses and sending large pieces of debris into the air.

In Ellis County, the severe weather overturned RVs and semi-trucks, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News. One man was killed and four others were hospitalized, the report stated.

Mallard Pointe Marina Granbury in Hood County received damage to its roof and bouys, according to a report on nbcdfw.com. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the closure of Texas 174 after power lines fell down on the highway. It also reported the destruction of a mobile home near Grandview.

At its worst, the storm affected about 3,700 United members at one time on March 8. More than 7,000 Oncor customers were without power at the storms peak, according to wfaa.com, and the majority of those out were in Ellis County.

While spring storms are part of Texas’ normal weather pattern, the beginning of March 2025 won’t be forgotten for some time, said Senior Foreman Jerry Scott. 

“While we did see some significant damage in Stephenville on March 4, the rest of the system damage was somewhat widespread and smaller scale.” Scott said. “The March 8 event was more centralized to a path with three distinct areas of intense damage along that path. We saw a severely damaged area on the north side of Stephenville with about 27 poles that went down. There was a spot just south of Tolar, where about 25 poles were wiped out. Then when the gusts got to Cleburne just north of Rio Vista, they knocked down several other poles and broke power lines. It was like the straight-line winds were just skipping along.”

Outside of that line, damage seemed less severe, he said. Crews responded to repair a downed pole here and there, or repair lines  where a barn roof or tree limbs had gone through them.

“The biggest challenge is always trying to manage the resources we have in the most effective way,” Scott said. “In both of these events I think our whole group of guys were standouts.”