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A storm blew through with winds gusting at least 60 miles per hour, if not more, blowing over trees and damaging houses throughout the Wimberley Valley.

There was damage seen all over Wimberley, but the hardest hit area was Marina Circle by the bridge over the Cypress Creek on Woodcreek Drive. Dozens of trees snapped or blew over downing power lines and breaking windows. Some in the area believe it was a small tornado.

“I looked out my window and things were moving in a circular motion,” Joe Burpee, who lives on Marina Circle, said. “I’m pretty sure it was a tornado. The whole building was twisting.”

However, the National Weather Service said they did not see any “signatures of a tornado.”

Update 4:07 a.m.:

National Weather Service officials said that there were no "signitures of a tornado" in the storm that blew through the Wimberley Valley on Thursday morning. They did say that there were straight-line winds reported in Central Texas of up to 70 mph from the storm and that the damage from such winds can look like that of a tornado. 

Original story:

Make plans to avoid the Ranch Road 12 bridge over the Blanco River on the night of Wednesday, March 23 as construction will cause lane closures throughout the night.
The United States Geological Survey will be fortifying the newly replaced river gauge over night and will need to bring a crane in to do the work.
Lane closures are expected to begin around 9 p.m. and continue until 5 a.m. The bridge will remain open, but it will only allow traffic one lane at a time.
The initial scope of the project expected construction to last multiple nights, but it is now believed that the work can be done in one night.

At the March 1st Work Session and special-called Board Meeting, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District Board of Directors initiated a formal rulemaking process as part of ongoing effort to implement the newly annexed area in Hays County and to better equip the District to manage prospective large-scale Trinity Aquifer water projects.
The proposed rules focus on management strategies that will protect existing wells and preserve the long-term availability of water supplies from the Trinity Aquifer. Under the proposed rules, applications for large-scale groundwater projects would require more rigorous aquifer testing, an expanded public outreach area, and continued aquifer monitoring.

Hays County Commissioners got some good news during their meeting on Tuesday to the tune of more than $7 million.
Dan Wegmiller of Specialized Public Finance, Inc., the county’s financial advisor, said a recent refinancing of the county’s existing debt yielded a savings of $7.14 million, twice what was expected.
“When I came to court we estimated $3.5 million if the market improved,” Wegmiller said.
He said the “timing couldn’t be better” in refinancing debt issued in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Going back to 2010, he said, “the county has refinance its debt to the savings of just over $16 million. “The interest portion of what you have borrowed just keeps dropping. We had talked about $3.5 million and we more than doubled that.”

The rains came, and once everyone dried off and got outside, the wildflowers started to put on their fancy clothes and show off. This includes the Texas State Flower, the five varieties of Bluebonnets.
It seems that back in 1901 the legislature named the Lupinus subcarnosus, or the sandy land bluebonnet the official flower. It is found in mostly from South Texas. Other Texans wanted the Lupinus texensis, a hardier plant. This is the main bluebonnet of Central Texas. Finally, in 1971 the legislature included 3 more varieties of the bluebonnet family and if any more bluebonnet species are discovered, they will also be included.

Saturday, March 5, 2016 was a banner day for the Wimberley Lions Club, and consequently, the community at large. The first Wimberley Market Days of the year saw record-breaking attendance and sales. Lions Club Treasurer, Marty Jacobvitz, accredited the phenomenon to various reasons. He said, “For the first time in several years, the Lions Club embarked on a public relations program to alert the patrons through media about what’s happening at Market Days. I think that played a large part of it. The second thing is that we added new menu items to the concessions stands, more healthy items, which I think drove some of the concession sales.” He cited the new directories and the implementation of promotional coupon inserts as other reasons for the successful St. Patrick’s Day-themed event.

Multiple car accidents this week held up traffic throughout town including one that Wimberley Fire Chief Carroll Czichos called a “miracle” when saying that nobody was injured.
On Thursday, March 10, a truck with a construction dumpster on the back lost control while heading towards Wimberley near the bridge on Ranch Road 12. The driver was able to gain control after crossing the center strip. In the process of getting back in the lane, the door on the dumpster swung open and snapped off. The large steel door bounced into the oncoming lane of traffic and struck a car.
“It hit the T-post near the driver’s head,” Czichos said. “If it had been a few inches to either side, it would have killed her.”
The driver of the car went off the road and struck a sign that then flipped over the car and struck a third vehicle. In the end, nobody was injured.

Voter turnout in Hays County was heavy and many voters who chose not to participate in the two weeks of early voting waited until late in the day Tuesday to make it to the polls. That in turn resulted in long lines at several locations with some not getting to vote until 8:30 p.m. or later. One polling place in Dripping Springs still had people in line a few minutes after 9 p.m. according to several reports.
“The last box to come in was from northern Hays County in Dripping Springs,” said Joyce Cowan, Hays County elections administrator. “We received their returns at 12:30 a.m.”
County Commissioner Will Conley had the largest margin of victory and because there is not a Democratic candidate, Conley was effectively re-elected to another four-year term Tuesday night. Conley racked up 82.35 percent of the vote in his race against Rob Roark.

Dwain York, W.I.S.D Superintendent