Texas storms: Hundreds of thousands still without power after hurricane-force winds hit Dallas and Houston

CNN
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Hundreds of thousands of Texans are without power and many could remain in the dark for several days after violent and deadly storms ravaged the state Tuesday and over the holiday weekend, leaving people picking up the pieces of homes and businesses devastated in uncomfortably hot weather. .

More than 450,000 utility customers in Texas were without power as of Wednesday morning, including more than 200,000 in Dallas County alone, according to PowerOutage.us.

Houston and Dallas were hit by high winds Tuesday as violent storms flooded roads, toppled trees and power lines and reduced some buildings to shells of their former selves.

Winds destroyed a house under construction in Magnolia, Texas, killing a 16-year-old who was working there, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. At least eight people have been killed in the state since Saturday as severe weather hit the region over the Memorial Day weekend.

The severe weather is just the latest in a relentless series of severe storms that have hit Texas in recent weeks, leaving residents with little time to recover from one storm before the next one arrives on their doorstep.

The summer heat will ease in Texas this week following a sweltering heat wave, but those without power or a reliable way to cool down could still face the risk of a blast. dangerous heat or heat exhaustion. Temperatures in East Texas will range from the mid-80s to low-90s on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

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Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins warned people to prepare to be without power for several days as an area utility company reported significant damage to its infrastructure. Utility utility Oncor shared photos of mangled utility poles, twisted power lines and huge toppled trees.

Widespread outages also hampered Tuesday’s primary runoff election in Dallas County, as more than a third of polling places were in the dark, according to Jenkins.

“Check in on your friends, family and neighbors, especially older adults,” Dallas County officials advised. “Do not move the debris yet, as there may be hidden downed power lines that may still be energized.”

Esmeralda Martinez, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, is among those currently sifting through homes reduced to soggy piles of debris and jagged wooden beams, CNN affiliate WFAA reports. She and her family sheltered in a hallway as the storm tore off the roof, damaging every room in her house and soaking their belongings.

Across the street, Javon Holloway and his grandmother are grateful their home was spared more serious damage. Neighbors are grateful no one was hurt.

“Don’t take your home for granted. This is what I will say. Be grateful for what you have,” Holloway told WFAA.

Storms continued to move across north and central Texas Tuesday evening and were expected to last through Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said. After a brief respite, another round of powerful storms will return to the same area Thursday evening, bringing a threat of large hail, damaging winds and localized flooding to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Houston-area residents are facing an all-too-familiar feeling as they survey the new layer of damage left by Tuesday’s storms — just two weeks after a derecho and tornado bulldozed the city, killing several people and cutting off electricity for almost a year. millions of homes and businesses.

Although 99% of those outages were restored last week, more than 300,000 Houston-area homes and businesses lost power during Tuesday’s storms, according to regional utility CenterPoint Energy. Power was restored to the majority of its customers Wednesday morning.

The latest severe weather also thwarted part of the city’s ongoing recovery after the mid-May storm covered streets with trees and debris, shattered skyscraper windows and damaged buildings.

That damage hadn’t yet been fully repaired when Tuesday’s storms rolled through, scattering piles of debris that crews had picked up on the streets and sending another shower of broken windows onto downtown Houston, according to affiliates from CNN KTRK and KHOU.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Andy Rose and Raja Razek contributed to this report.