Shannon Gowan, director of communications with the city, said crews had to deal with a number of trees that fell onto streets.

“The street division has received calls of trees and tree limbs blown down across the city streets at approximately 20 addresses,” she said. “These are predominantly in north Temple.”

She said there were some reports also coming from south, central and northwest rural areas of Temple, she said.

“The street and drainage divisions have been diligently clearing these trees and limbs from the streets beginning shortly after 7 a.m.,” Ms. Gowan said.

Temple City Manager David Blackburn said a decision on whether to temporarily alter brush pick-up regulations would probably be made in a few days. During the Easter weekend snowstorm, the city suspended its new brush pickup regulations for residents.

Ms. Gowan said there were no reported water drainage problems.

Barbara Steele, who lives in a rental property in the 700 block of East Central, said the ceiling of her grown son’s room collapsed after shingles were blown off her roof.

“The singles ended up on the ground and my son got rained on about 6 or 6:30 a.m., then the ceiling collapsed and fell.”

She said no one was injured and she did not call 911.

Corey Reimer, who lives in the 1500 block of North Third Street, surveyed damage to his 2002 Ford F-150 after a tree blew onto it.

“I was in the bathroom this morning and heard a loud, kind of odd noise, then the power went out,” he said. “I looked out of the house and found a tree was on my truck.”

He said he heard the loud thud at about 6:30 a.m.

Near the house, city crews bulldozed a tree that had fallen onto the street in the 1300 block of North First Street into a yard for later pickup.

A line of privacy fencing was blown down in a subdivision on Fifth Street in South Temple.

The Temple VA lost power at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday as a result of the turbulent weather. The VA’s emergency generators immediately kicked into service, said Nelia Schrum, public affairs officer for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System.

Power was restored within four minutes, however, due to power surges the emergency generators kicked in again when power was lost at 1:08 a.m. Mrs. Schrum said the VA implemented its emergency plan, which includes moving all patients away from windows, when a tornado warning was issued Wednesday morning.

The storm also caused large-scale power outages for other customers in the area, with West Bell County being the worst hit.

“It’s bad. It’s all over the place,” John Toone, spokesman for Oncor Electric Delivery, said Wednesday morning. “It’s going to be a long day.”

A total of about 8,000 customers in Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove and Nolanville were without power. Trees falling on power lines were the major cause for the power disruption, Toone said.

The number of customers without power in East Bell County included:

n 2,100 in Temple.

n 1,300 in Salado.

n 200 in Holland.

n 100 in Little River-Academy.

n 90 in Belton.

Toone said Wednesday that some of those customers could be without power until today, but the local provider is getting outside help to get electricity back on as soon as possible.

“We’ve got help coming from Dallas and help has already arrived from Round Rock,” Toone said.

Janice Gibbs contributed to this report.