FREDERICKSBURG, Texas — Kammie Robertson said when a powerful storm whipped across Fredericksburg Thursday night she heard the damage before she saw it, from her vantagepoint as the manager of the Inn on Barons Creek.
"I didn't see it. I heard it. The first big sheet of metal that came down, I heard it and I was like oh my gosh, what was that?" Robertson said.
Robertson said she ran outside and was shocked to find most of the roof of her building wrapped around utility poles and blocking the street three floors below where it had been.
"I thought somebody drove into the building and I walked out and I saw it and I saw the wind blowing," Robertson said, adding she quickly ran back inside but that's when things got even more exciting.
"Then I had to do crowd control because everybody wanted to go back out and take pictures, as it's blowing!" Robertson said.
Robertson said she is grateful that fire, police and city crews showed up immediately to start with the recovery effort and she said a contractor she hired to address the roof had workers on site soon after the wind stopped blowing.
"Nobody was hurt. None of the rooms were damaged so we were really lucky there, and crews were out here first thing this morning cleaning it up and we've got it under control," Robertson said, adding that she's not surprised by the response because that's how things get done in Fredericksburg.
Looking at the random damage around town, where some properties are bearing witness marks of high winds and some are completely unscathed, Robertson said people are talking about the fact that there might have been a tornado, instead of straight line winds, but she said nobody has made a commitment on the matter.
"I've been through a tornado before and that's exactly what happened. It hit my house, missed the next house, hit the next house. It' crazy how mother nature works," Robertson said.
There were other commercial buildings that were hit as well.
The Hill Country Memorial Rehabilitation center at 402 West Windcrest lost its roof as well. A hospital spokesman said although there were a few people in the building at the time, there were no injuries reported.
Bright and early Friday morning, a contractor was already on site, clearing away the debris and developing a plan to restore the building. The spokesman said in addition to building repair, they are scrambling to make sure all of their patients will be able to continue treatment while the work continues.
On West Main, it looked as though someone had taken a can opener to the metal roof atop the Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn.
A nearby witness said two power poles on the property were damaged as well, leading to a power outage at a nearby business that lasted a few hours.
Around town, the roar of the storm was replaced by the whine of chainsaws and power tools, as homeowners began cutting up and hauling off downed trees, while city crews with heavy equipment scooped up the remains for safe disposal.
There is no city-wide damage estimate at this time, but it could be noted that the storm did bring significant rain in the area as well.
On the "Fredericksburg Weather Share" page on Facebook, one woman gave thanks for the 3.7 inches of rain she received near Willow City.
There are many still pictures and videos of damage on the public group page which has more than 3,000 members: