Severe weather tears down trees, damages property Saturday morning

FORT BEND COUNTY - Southwest Houston wasn't able to dodge debris from storms Friday night. A downburst in Fort Bend County left residents with a lot of cleaning up to do.

A typically serene part of the Ridge Gate neighborhood rattled with the sound of chainsaws Saturday.

Heavy winds seemed to bear down on a single street, Ridgecreek Dr. before sunrise. The gusts ripped limbs from trees, and a downpour helped topple one over.

One resident of 40 years appeared to get the worst of it. Preston Henry was left with a roof and fence to repair.

“I can’t hardly describe it,” he says. “It came in a New York second. It came so fast, we didn’t have time to think,” Henry recalls the sound of the storm from around 3:30 in the morning.

But he adds, “It could've been a lot worse- everybody's okay.”

Henry says his insurance is already at work, but some neighbors were still trying to sort out what to do next late into the morning after.

With torn trees tossed in the road, part of the street was also blocked.

Another resident woke to find his daughter's car trapped under debris.

“We found out when the car alarm went off this morning. That’s how we knew,” says Kenny Willett. “I came outside, and the tree was laying on top of the car.”

Once it’s cleared, he'll have dents and broken windshields to deal with, but he's happy the heavy limbs didn't hit the house or hurt anyone inside.

After 25 years of avoiding damage from Houston storms, he says it's the first time since moving in that he and his neighbors are having to do this much of a cleanup.