Multiple Williamson County homes hit by lightning during severe storms

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas - At least seven homes in Williamson County had lightning strike damage during Tuesday's storm, fire officials said.

WilCo homes damaged by lightning strikes

The backstory:

One house in Liberty Hill was a total loss.

"It is surreal, it is very surreal," said Emily Kane, who lost her home to a lightning strike. "It just hit the installation, and that's what caused it to go."

Their neighbors started a GoFundMe to help them.

"Even though it was raining hard, and they had a fire, I mean, they were doing all they could, but it was windy. It was so windy that it just kept the fire going."

Her daughter-in-law, Isabel Lopez, got all six of her kids out, plus the family's beloved dog and cat.

"They were like, that was a big one that hit the house, and Jake was crying, he's 3, and yeah, I went upstairs, and I smelled smoke, and I was like 'that doesn't seem normal,’" said Lopez.

Dig deeper:

As the famous saying goes, "lightning never strikes the same place twice."

While that held true during Tuesday morning's storm, fire officials say they got an unusual number of 911 calls about lightning strikes.

In Georgetown, the fire department put out a fire caused by lightning in the Riverview subdivision.

Jarrell fire crews were perhaps the busiest on Tuesday, with five reports of lightning hitting a home.

"Which is really pretty unusual, relatively speaking," said Ron Stewart, the Jarrell fire chief. "It might happen once every few years, but for something to happen four or five times in the course of just one morning, it was just really unusual."

Stewart said most of the homes had more minor damage, including missing shingles, sheet rock pushing out of the walls, and blown out cords.

"Anytime you have anything sparking or smoking, or you smell smoke or even if you just suspect that it could be a problem, just call us and let us come out and take a look at it, just to be sure," said Stewart.