7 dead in Houston area after storms and 100 mph winds

Seven people died in Houston and the surrounding county after severe weather downed power lines and trees and toppled brick walls, officials said Friday.

Three of the deaths occurred in unincorporated Harris County, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, and four in Houston, according to authorities.

There was an EF-1 tornado with winds of 110 mph in Cypress, and Houston saw straight-line winds peaking at 100 mph, the National Weather Service said.

“This type of wind is something we haven’t seen in Harris County since Hurricane Alicia in 1983,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top government official, said Friday , during a press conference.

Hurricane Alicia was a small hurricane, but it was a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall near the San Luis Pass on August 18, 1983. It killed 21 people, according to the weather service, and the total damage and of its effects amounted to more than 3 billion dollars. .

The three deaths announced Friday in unincorporated Harris County included a man who collapsed while trying to move a fallen utility pole; a woman who was found dead in a trailer after lightning struck her and started a fire; and a man who was found dead after going to his truck to hook up an oxygen tank after a power outage.

Two of the four people who died in Houston were killed by falling trees, a third died when a crane exploded and the circumstances of the fourth were not detailed in a briefing.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the city experienced “an exceptionally strong storm” Thursday evening.

He and Hidalgo signed disaster declarations following the storms. Statements authorize additional authority and assistance.

“Houstonians, stay home tonight. The recovery will continue through tomorrow,” Whitmire said Friday. He compared the winds to those of Hurricane Ike which hit in 2008 and said there was “tremendous damage downtown.”

CenterPoint Energy said in a statement that outages from the storm peaked at about 922,000 homes and businesses. There were about 574,000 customers without power as of 7 p.m. Friday, according to its website.

Restoration in the hardest-hit areas could take days, the utility said.

Windows were blown out in buildings in downtown Houston. Trees crashed into homes and winds tore away parts of homes in other parts of the city. A roof above the pumps at a gas station was thrown to the ground, taking the supports with it.

Kathleen Cox was at home folding clothes and knew a storm was coming. She can’t hear very well, but she thought she heard something and went to investigate.

“I just saw the tree in the house,” Cox said, pointing to the tree still leaning against his house Friday. “Oh my God, I don’t need anything else in my life right now.”

“It wasn’t like that during the hurricanes,” Cox said. “You know, trees were cut down but never completely uprooted like that.”