Spring storm hits home, and hits hard.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 8th, 2019, the city of Longview and surrounding East Texas was hit by a sudden storm causing uprooted trees, downed power lines, and property damage to parks, homes and businesses. Initial reports indicated a tornado, but when the storm settled and the National Weather Service made its official declaration, the massive damage was caused by none other than straight line winds. Within twenty minutes the entire storm had come and gone, powered through by its 90 mph winds covering a 17 mile long path, and leaving a damage zone that measured 2500 yards wide. To put that in perspective, 2500 yards is equal to about 25 football fields placed back to back.

Miraculously, there were no reported injuries. Utility crews, city workers, neighbors and volunteers from all around worked hard over the next days and even weeks to pull trees from homes, clean up debris, and restore power to the more than 30,000 people experiencing outages.

Perhaps the most shared pictures and videos of the storm were of the fallen steeple at Oakland Heights Baptist Church on Judson Road. The church was founded in 1957 and has long been a mainstay of the community. The tall white steeple spiraling toward the sky was an iconic landmark to locals. It took 2 cranes and 4 hours to get the toppled 25,000 pound spire to the ground.

RLM General Contractors is happy to be helping this loving church community with repairs and replacement of the steeple for their sanctuary.