Baseball-sized hail pummeled the town Saturday night, damaging homes and vehicles as first responders and residents worked together to clean up and help neighbors.<\/p>\n
TAFT, Texas \u2014 A powerful hailstorm slammed into Taft late Saturday night, pelting the city of roughly 3,000 with some stones nearly the size of baseballs and leaving widespread destruction across homes, vehicles and city property.<\/p>\n
RELATED: City of Portland warns residents of scams after storm<\/a><\/p>\n When daylight came, cracked windshields, shattered windows and scattered debris revealed the extent of the damage. Many residents spent Sunday morning assessing what could be repaired and what had been lost.<\/p>\n Taft Volunteer Fire Chief Mike Vasquez said he and several firefighters were caught in the storm as they tried to return to town after responding to an earlier call.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we were at a call with Gregory, Aransas and Portland out on having the county roads out there, and we actually saw the system come through. So we tried to wrap up quickly to get everybody safely. And as we were actually coming back to Taft past Tradewinds, we had to shelter in place, myself in the command unit and two of my brush trucks with five of my personnel, and just kind of waited out. The system rolled through quick. It was pretty powerful. We saw the hail come through. The wind was shaking the apparatuses, and as soon as we got a clearance, we shot all the way back to Taft, because we had an influx of calls come through.\u201d<\/p>\n Vasquez said he has not seen this level of destruction in Taft since Hurricane Harvey hit the Coastal Bend in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been with the department for about 11 and a half to 12 years now. The only other weather event that I can compare this to is Harvey,” Vasquez said. “That extent of damage is the only thing I can compare this to.\u201d<\/p>\n By sunrise, the community was already mobilizing. City leaders used skid-steers to clear debris from roadways while dozens of residents gathered at Hidalgo Park. There, volunteers organized a cookout to feed anyone helping with recovery efforts, from first responders to neighbors dragging branches off streets.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty much everyone in Taft got some kind of damage,\u201d said Mike Esquivel, who helped organize the gathering. \u201cI probably have a vehicle totaled, some windows out at the house, but you know this is the greater part \u2014 we can board up, help out whoever, a couple neighbors \u2014 but we still wanted to get together and have some food available for anybody who\u2019s out there working. Doesn\u2019t have to be a first responder, you know, if you need a break come get a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n As residents cleaned up, many firefighters, including Vasquez, returned home to find their own vehicles and houses severely damaged by the storm.<\/p>\n City officials say updates will be posted on the City of Taft and Taft Volunteer Fire Department Facebook pages as cleanup continues. On Sunday afternoon, Taft Mayor Leonard Vasquez signed a disaster declaration in hopes of securing additional aid from outside municipalities.<\/p>\n RELATED: Property damaged? City of Taft to assist residents in reporting damage through iSTAT<\/a><\/p>\n