Tornado tears up West Side street Record rain not enough to end drought.

Freeda Mosley (right) hugs neighbor Antonio Matias (facing away) after a storm swept through their neighborhood in northwest San Antonio off highway 151 early Wednesday morning. The storm damaged several homes in the area and tore the roof off of a home on the 8900 block of Deer Park. Standing behind Mosley and Matias is Mary Wilson. John Davenport/San Antonio Express-News less Freeda Mosley (right) hugs neighbor Antonio Matias (facing away) after a storm swept through their neighborhood in northwest San Antonio off highway 151 early Wednesday morning. The storm damaged several homes ... more Photo: SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Photo: SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close Tornado tears up West Side street 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

A tornado tore roofs and doors off homes and garages Wednesday, ripping a path 30 yards wide for more than a quarter-mile along a far West Side street.

Storms that swept through San Antonio cut power and snarled the morning commute for thousands of area residents — and broke a 1968 rainfall record for any day in January, based on the 2.94 inches recorded at San Antonio International Airport.

Parts of the city received even more, up to 5.36 inches, the National Weather Service reported. But it wasn't enough to affect watering restrictions or quench the ongoing drought, officials said.

No injuries were reported from the tornado, or from several residence fires caused by lightning strikes. Emergency crews rescued the occupants of two vehicles in flooded roadways.

The most significant tornado damage was a carport thrown into a home, NWS forecaster Jim Ellis said.

Altogether, nine homes in the 8900 block of Deer Park were severely damaged, Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Sparks said.

“I feel blessed,” said Deer Park resident Mary Wilson, 65, whose roof was punctured by debris from a neighbor's destroyed home. “God spared lives. Homes can be rebuilt, repaired. Lives are precious.”

Wilson said she was asleep when she heard winds pick up — it sounded like a train approaching.

“I've been in hurricanes, but not anything like this,” she said. “The winds were so strong.”

Esther Lopez said she and her husband Joe were “very, very lucky” that bricks from their neighbor's ruined garage didn't fly through their daughter's nearby window.

“My jaw dropped when I stepped outside,” Esther Lopez said. “It's amazing how some of the houses didn't get touched.”

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Electrical outages affected more than 26,000 customers, including numerous schools, but power had been restored to most by the day's end, CPS Energy reported. Roads and streets flooded throughout the city, including the lower level of Interstate 35 downtown.

The interstate also was closed by a morning truck wreck near Walzem Road.

Police responded to 101 traffic incidents by 8:30 a.m.; on average they get 130 calls all day.

The San Antonio River flow jumped from 10 cubic feet per second to more than 10,000 cfs at Loop 410 on the South Side. It was back to 1,140 cfs by nightfall.

Sparks said lightning ignited at least three fires on the North Side, including one that destroyed seven units at the Lincoln Village Apartments on Jackson-Keller Road about 1:40 a.m., causing $350,000 in damages.

About 20 minutes later, a smaller fire erupted at a home on the 4100 block of Camphor Way, and a third ripped through a home in the 16200 block of Deer Crest about 2:45 a.m.

While farmers and gardeners welcomed the rain, it will do little to alleviate the current long-term drought. Area waterways and aquifers will be helped, but not enough to change current drought restrictions or restore local rivers and springs to normal flows, NWS forecaster Mark Lenz said. The Edwards Aquifer Authority agreed.

Volunteers from the Red Cross fanned out across the city, county and beyond to assess the damage and make contact with families affected by it, said Lucy Lashover, the agency spokeswoman.

Lashover said the apartment fire displaced eight adults and seven children. Two of the families were provided hotel rooms and the others stayed with relatives, she said. Because the police had blocked off access to Deer Park, volunteers were not able to talk to families there, Lashover said.

“We do get calls maybe a day or two after, asking for assistance,” Lashover said. “Once things settle down we might get calls from (Deer Park) folks and then we'll be sending out volunteers to give a helping hand.”

A high pressure system is expected to move back over South-Central Texas, ending rain chances, the weather service said.

aley@express-news.net

Colin McDonald and Michelle Mondo contributed to this report.