Storms knock over Central Expressway billboard, crushing car

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Heavy wind and rain on Monday knocked over a billboard at Central Expressway and Fitzhugh Avenue, crushing a car underneath it.

Valerie Silva, whose car was crushed by the fallen billboard, was waiting tables at Buzzbrews when it happened

 “Someone came inside and said, ‘Who has the blue Impala?’ I said, ‘I do,' and he said, ‘A sign fell on the roof of your car,” Silva said. “I went out and I wasn't expecting that.”

Cell phone video, taken from a nearby motel, captured the moment.

According to the National Weather Service, straight line winds with speeds up to 50 mph tore through Dallas at the time the sign fell over. Winds bent the steel beams supporting the billboard in half.

“We were inside and we felt the building shake,” Silva said. “We thought it was thunder."

Silva, who is a single mother of two, paid cash for the Chevy Impala. Today she is stranded, but grateful no one was hurt.

“Someone was watching over everybody, because that billboard could've fallen any other way,” Silva said. “It would've been devastating to people.”

Silva said the billboard company is paying for the cost to repair her car.

 At The Taylor apartments in Uptown, the same storms caused part of the complex’s parking garage to collapse, crushing a cable company van.

The collapse happened on private property, so it's the sole responsibility of the owner of the apartment complex to make the repairs. City of Dallas officials told FOX4 there is no record of any code violations filed against the structure.

Resident Abigail Callaway moved into the complex on Sunday. She wasn’t even unpacked when part of the garage façade collapsed.

“The power of mother nature is insane," Callaway said.

The Taylor staff has not said how long repairs would take. Callaway said residents will have to park on the street until repairs are done.