Following the derecho storm on August 10th, damage in Dallas County is estimated at around $15 million.

Dallas County Emergency Management Coordinator AJ Seely tells Raccoon Valley Radio there was $5.2 million in commercial losses, $2.6 million in residential losses, $1.5 million in government infrastructure damage, and $4-5 million estimated costs for cleanup and debris management efforts.

Seely reports there were 196 residential property damage reports, including 41 properties that were deemed unlivable, and another three that were completely destroyed. There were 34 commercial properties damaged with four destroyed. Seely explains what made this storm so destructive, “This storm, and straight line winds in general, while they might not seem as severe as a tornado, they certainly can be. I think some of the damage that we saw was comparable to that of a low-level tornado. A tornado is typically much more isolated than the straight line wind event we had, mostly county-wide damage. So a tornado would have a much smaller impact scale compared to this. This is certainly something that we never hope for, and something I don’t want to deal with for a very long time.”

County officials continue to ask for damage reports. Residents can do so by texting “DallasCOdamage” to 69310, or by following this link.