Hail, Heavy Rain as Severe Thunderstorm Moved Through Hopkins County Monday During 5 o’clock Hour
Monday’s five o’clock hour was somewhat intense in Hopkins County as a severe thunderstorm passed through Cumby at 4:40 p.m., Sulphur Springs at 5:10 p.m. and Como at 5:45 p.m.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning that turned into a tornado warning for Hopkins, northern Rains, and Southeastern Hunt counties. At 4:40 a severe thunderstorm was located near Campbell moving east at 40 mph. The storm contained wind gusts up to 60 mph and hail from pea size to softball size. The severed weather warning expired at 5:45 p.m.
Photo of hail by Amanda Story in Rockdale Road area
KSST followed the storm from Hunt County through Hopkins County into Franklin County giving warnings to those along county roads and communities affected by the hail. Reports come in to KSST from individuals throughout the affected area. A resident on County Road 2301 reported marble sized hail as did residents north of FM 1567 and in the Black Oak Community. Nickel sized hail from I-30 to the Sulphur Springs Livestock sale and on County Road 1174, Country Road 2174, was reported. Half dollar sized hail on County Road 1174 and softball sized hail on FM 269 and FM 852 with heavy rain were the most severe hail reports received. Pea sized hail fell at KSST studios on Shannon Road, Azalea Lane, Woodbridge areas, County Road 1100 off State Highway 19 four miles south of Pilot Truck Stop, and in the Star Ridge Community. Rain and sunshine followed the heavier storm in the Coleman Park area. A variety of sizes for hail was experienced in the Greenpond area.
No wind damage reports were made to KSST.
The storm was a second band of rain that had passed through the area after brief rains were experienced Monday morning. A third band of storms remained to the west with storm warnings given to those in Collin and Hunt Counties until 6:30 p.m. Those storms were moving east along State Highway 380 toward Greenville and also Hopkins County. KSST will continue to monitor this storm front. The county and surrounding area is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m.
Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Hopkins County until 5:45 p.m.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN FORT WORTH HAS ISSUED A
* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR…
HOPKINS COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS…
SOUTHEASTERN HUNT COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS…
NORTHERN RAINS COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS…
* UNTIL 545 PM CDT
* AT 440 PM CDT…A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED NEAR CAMPBELL…OR
8 MILES EAST OF GREENVILLE…MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH.
HAZARD…60 MPH WIND GUSTS AND HALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL.
SOURCE…RADAR INDICATED.
IMPACT…HAIL DAMAGE TO VEHICLES IS EXPECTED. EXPECT WIND DAMAGE
TO ROOFS…SIDING…AND TREES.
* THIS SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR…
CUMBY AROUND 450 PM CDT.
SULPHUR SPRINGS AROUND 510 PM CDT.
COMO AROUND 525 PM CDT.
Deadline to Claim Certain Social Security Benefits is April 29th
After April 30th, requests to file and suspend will be subject to a new set of rules. April 29, 2016, is the deadline to claim certain Social Security benefits under existing rules. Anyone who is 62-years of age or older by the end of 2015, including those who celebrate their 62nd birthday on January 1, 2016, can file a restricted claim for spousal benefits when they turn 66. They do not have to do anything before then. In order to claim only spousal benefits, worth half of the other spouse’s full retirement age benefit amount, the first spouse must actually be collecting Social Security benefits or must have been old enough—at least 66—to have filed and suspended their benefits by the April 29 deadline.
Filing and suspending under current rules by the April 29 deadline allows a worker to trigger benefits for a spouse or dependent child while their own benefit continues to grow by 8% per year up to age 70. A person has the right to request a lump sum payout of suspended benefits any time up to age 70 instead of collecting the delayed retirement bonus.
Under the new rules that take affect April 30th, no one will be able to collect benefits on a worker’s earnings record during a suspension. The rules also specifically eliminate the lump sum payout option which can be particularly valuable for single people who have no spouse to collect a survivor benefit after their death.
Divorced spouses are not affected by the new file-and-suspend restriction. Even if an ex-spouse files and suspends his benefit, it will not affect the ability of a former spouse to collect benefits on his earnings record. However, both spouses and ex-spouses who turn 62 after January 1, 2016 will lose the right to claim spousal benefits only on their mate or ex-mates’ earnings record. Whenever these claim Social Security, they will be paid the highest benefits to which they are entitled, whether their earnings or as a spouse. They will never be able to claim only spousal benefits at full retirement age to allow their own benefits to group until age 70.
The new law will not affect survivor benefits which are unchanged under the new law. Anyone entitled to both their own retirement benefits and the benefits as a surviving spouse will still be able to claim one type of benefit first and switch to the other later.
One source for more information on how to increase your social security benefits before the new rules go into effect is Craig Johnson, Edward D. Jones, Oak Avenue, Sulphur Springs.
Severe Thunderstorm Watch Until 9 p.m. Monday
WATCH COUNTY NOTIFICATION FOR WATCH 85 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX
139 PM CDT MON APR 11 2016.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 85 IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS
IN TEXAS THIS WATCH INCLUDES 30 COUNTIES
IN CENTRAL TEXAS
ANDERSON FREESTONE HENDERSON
HILL
IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS
COLLIN COOKE DALLAS
DELTA DENTON ELLIS
FANNIN GRAYSON HOOD
HOPKINS HUNT JACK
JOHNSON KAUFMAN LAMAR
MONTAGUE NAVARRO PALO PINTO
PARKER RAINS ROCKWALL
SOMERVELL TARRANT VAN ZANDT
WISE YOUNG
Free Airplane Rides at the Young Eagles Rally
The Sulphur Springs Aviation Association and the Civil Air Patrol are hosting a Young Eagles Rally and giving students FREE airplane rides on Saturday, April 16th from 9:30 until noon at the Sulphur Springs Municipal Airport. Students must be age 8 through 17 and must have a parent or guardian present to sign permission forms. Students 18 and older must call for an appointment.Participants will receive a signed Young Eagle Pilot Logbook and will also receive a certificate of completion along with a free online aviation ground school course.Call 903-850-8113 for more information.
Tira News By Jan Vaughn
Floyd and Martha Payton enjoyed a visit with their daughter, Regina. She arrived on Wednesday evening before Easter. Martha says, “We caught up on some small problems with an i-Pad, made a trip to the library and had lunch in Sulphur Springs. Floyd hasn’t been feeling well lately, so we stayed close to home. Brad Payton from Keller came on Wednesday and visited with us until Saturday afternoon, also our grandson, Eric arrived from San Diego on Friday and stayed until Monday afternoon. He will be returning on Thursday afternoon for an overnight stay and catfish dinner. The house was rather quiet by Monday night, just the two of us again.” She adds, “Enjoy this beautiful weather and spring. The bluebonnets are blooming on the roadways and are very pretty.”
The North Hopkins Cemetery Association will be having a business meeting on Monday, April 11th, at 7:00 p.m. in the cemetery chapel. Shirley Glossup would like to encourage all interested parties to attend.
The “My Hero’s” bowling party at the Weirs’, was a success, with lots of fun and food. Yvonne Weir informed me that about 30 people were there.
Danna Lewis, golf coach at North Hopkins School, reported that the boys’ golf team placed second and will advance to regional competition. Team members are Evan Lewis, Mason Virgel, Ryan Reed, Aaron Stanley and Samuel Stanley. Evan was 5th overall individual.
Jackson Dailey and his girlfriend Courtney traveled to Arlington on Monday to cheer the Texas Rangers on to an Opening Day win!
Our neighboring community, Birthright, has a new Dollar General store, located on Highway 19 North, just north of FM 71. They will be having their Grand Opening this Saturday, April 9th. Store employees commented, “Y’all come check us out.” The store hours are 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., seven days a week.
Chip and I met Garry and Gena Jordan in Sulphur Springs on Friday evening for a delicious meal and a wonderful time of visiting.
On Saturday, Chip Vaughn met the Sulphur Springs Middle School Destination Imagination teams at Anna High School for their state competition. Chip assists Clay Hansford in coaching the technical team. They were excited to win second place and have the opportunity to move on to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee in May.
Tiffany Vaughn met her friend, Stephanie Weaver of McKinney, on Friday evening, and then they spent the weekend in San Marcos, shopping and visiting with Stephanie’s mom, Debbie Simonton, for her birthday.
I always need and appreciate input from my friends to help keep me informed of news in our community. If you have any news pertaining to Tira residents, past or present, please contact me, Jan Vaughn, at 903-945-2190 or 903-438-6688 or [email protected].
SSHS FCCLA Teams Compete At State
The Sulphur Springs High School Family Career and Community Leaders of America Program, or FCCLA, sent two teams to state competition over the weekend; one for Culinary Arts and another for Job Interview Skills. FCCLA Sponsor Debbie Stribling said that competition was stiff with 30 teams competing in Culinary Arts and 29 teams in Job Interview.
The Culinary Arts team consisted of Autumn Hammans, Diego Perea, America Luna, Tyler Maloney, Ashley Franklin, and Chandler Eichenour and Mallory White was the lone competitor in Job Interview Skills. White said that the judges gave her recommendations to help improve her portfolio for future competitions.
Stribling, who is heading into her 26th year of teaching Family Consumer Sciences at the high school, said “we come back from state meeting on fire and ready to start next year bigger and better than this year.”
Memorial Hospital and Clinic Served by 42-Volunteers
by Lakan Johnson
We have 42 volunteers who worked at total of 11,361 hours in the last fiscal year. Our volunteers work in such areas as the Gift Shop, OB, Day Surgery, Wound Care and also at Memorial Clinic, the Information Desk and the Outpatient Desk filling important roles supporting our staff members and assisting our customers. The amount for Texas (average) that a volunteer’s time is worth is $24.66 per hour so the total amount in hours that our volunteers have donated to the Hospital District is $280,162.26.
In addition to their time, during the last fiscal year, our Volunteer Auxiliary donated at total of $46,356.76 in the form of scholarships, department requests, employee gifts and donations to the Lights of Life and Foundation. A few examples of much needed items that were purchased by our Volunteer Auxiliary include new patient tray lines/ domes/lids for Dietary, rocking chairs for the Pedi floor, additional AED devices to ensure all clinics have an AED, carpet for the EMS building, PT equipment, privacy screens for Admissions, and two telemetry units for Cardiac Rehab.
Even though we have calculated their assistance into dollars, please make it a point this week to say “Thank You” to our Volunteers for their invaluable service.
