When clerks at the post office in Argyle started their morning at 3:30, they thought they would just have a normal day.

The power went out as soon as they clocked in at 3:31.

DRC/Al Key

A wall cloud hangs from a large supercell thunderstorm that spawned tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds in North Central Texas on Wednesday. The wall cloud is seen passing over traffic on U.S. Highway 287 near Decatur around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Clerks were able to sort and distribute mail, but could not open the customer-service counter. They spent most of their morning unloading packages in the dark until about 12:15 in the afternoon.

“You never think about it — once the power goes out you have to do everything by hand,” said Alicia Aguilar, with the Argyle post office. Employees were able to handle small packages using flashlights until the power came back on.

She called it an interesting morning.

Portions of Argyle served by TXU Energy lost power at 3:30 a.m. Thursday, including the traffic light at U.S. Highway  377 and Country Club Road near Hilltop Elementary School. Even the police department stood a couple of hours without electricity.

“We are not really shut down when the power is out,” Police Chief William Tackett said. “We are still good.”

After the second storms hit about 3 a.m. Thursday, CoServ Electric soon sent 14 crews to handle damages that affected an estimated 14,000 people, officials said in a news release. Power was restored to most CoServ users by 7 a.m., with only 20 people without power by 1 p.m.

The National Weather Service reported gusty winds affecting most of the North Texas area Wednesday afternoon with winds between 20 to 30 mph. Other reports said storms affected about 175,000 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Lisa Lemons, a spokeswoman with Denton Municipal Electric, said her calls started in the early morning when most of the outages started in the area. She reported several areas affected — around north Denton, north of U.S. Highway 380 and sections in south Denton. Most reports were of fallen trees and limbs, and blown fuses.

“We were able to get power up and running for all three of those [areas], about 7 a.m.,” Lemons said. “We had a great response time and had major avenues fixed within six hours.”

She said most of the damages in the area were in residential areas and affected about 6,500 customers.

Denton city spokesman John Cabrales said, “Surprisingly it was not near like the hail that came by last time around,” adding that of what he had seen, most damages were limited to lights out on some streets.

Yet, compared to last week, the most recent thunderstorms did not cause much damage in Den­ton County.

Last Friday, residents in north Denton and southern Denton County were hit with high winds and hail. In Denton, several lines of severe thunderstorms left some businesses and Fair Hall at the North Texas State Fair­grounds with peeled-back roofs. Several residents reported trees uprooted and pushed into their houses. Golf-ball-sized hail was reported in north Denton and in Lewisville, where vehicles and roofs were damaged by quarter-sized hail and power was reportedly out for several hours.

In response to storm damage, customers are advised to call their insurance agent the minute they find a problem at their home.

“We have a lot of claims, anyone who has an auto or home insurance whether they think they have damage, should contact their agent,” said Eric Grunor, with State Farm in Lake Dallas. “Most insurance companies can go to look at them.”

He said that the worst cases, like roof damage, get taken care of first, but customers with smaller problems should still call.

Grunor said residents have options for repairing damages.

“Customers always have a right, no matter what, to use whomever they want,” he said, about working with certain contractors. “They do not always have to choose who the insurance companies select.”

Roofers such as Greg Stanton, with Swan Roofing LLC of Plano, said the workload, for now, is backed up. His cellphone started ringing at 6 a.m. Thursday.

“We are swamped,” Stanton said. “We got 350 calls [to the office].” 

Calls to his business — which tends to a large customer base of more than 40,000 — have mostly been from residents who reported damages to their roof shingles and decks, he said.

“We have never been hit with this many storms like this,” said Stanton, who has been in the roofing industry for 12 years. “We are just going to work as hard as we can all day.”

Ron Trumbla, public information officer with the National Weather Service’s southern re­gion, said he believed things would be looking up in the Denton area.

“There are still some high winds and flooding concerns for North Texas, but good weather is expected at least through the middle of next week,” he said.

Meteorologist Jennifer Dunn, also with the weather service, agreed. “It looks dry for the next week … pleasant and dry,” she said.

Dunn said the seasonal transition from cool to warm is behind the recent spate of spring thunderstorms, which can occur from late March to early June in North Texas.

“We’re just now starting to get into our peak season,” she said.

Staff writers Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe and Dawn Cobb contributed to this report.

KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com .