One dead in Texas and millions without power after extreme storms drop hailstones

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One person died when storms brought golf ball-sized hail to Texas, leaving more than a million residents without power.

Hurricane-force winds and damaging hail brought severe thunderstorms to the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas on Tuesday afternoon. More than 1 million customers in the state were without power as of 3 p.m. local time, according to energy tracker PowerOutage.us.

According to FlightAware, hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, including at Dallas-Fort Worth International.

The storms are expected to continue through Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. Wind gusts could exceed 75 mph in parts of southeast Texas, and tornadoes are possible in south Texas through 1 a.m. local time Wednesday.

Hail in the region could reach over two inches in diameter and the size of a tennis ball or baseball on Tuesday evening. At this size, hail can cause severe damage to parked cars and roof shingles.

Officials said it could take several days to resolve the widespread power outages.

“We have indeed had many power lines down due to this weather event,” said Grant Cruise, a spokesman for utility Oncor, on Tuesday.

“In many cases, it will not be just a matter of simple repairs. Parts of our area will require complete reconstruction.”

Severe winds that damaged power lines and buildings were so strong Tuesday morning that they swept American Airlines Flight 737-800 away from its gate at Dallas-Forth Worth International.

With strong winds continuing, reports of a semi-trailer truck overturning and several car crashes surfaced on Texas highways, local news station WFAA reported.

In Magnolia County, a construction crew told local station KHOU that one of their colleagues was trapped under the rubble of a house that collapsed during the storms. Two nearby homes are also in ruins. Magnolia Fire Chief Adam Vulgamott told KHOU officials that the search was still intense as of 3 p.m. local time.

Texas will also hold a runoff election on Tuesday. Voters will choose the final candidates for the November ballot.

The power outages in the Dallas area prompted authorities to extend polling hours for the state’s runoff elections by two hours after dozens of polling stations lost power.

At least 76 polling stations in four counties were without power due to the storms. The Texas Tribune reports.

“(The storm) caught a lot of people off guard along the way,” Nicholas Solorzano, communications manager for the Dallas County Elections Department, told the tribune“Unfortunately, many of our locations, such as schools and libraries, are still experiencing power outages.”

The storm arrived just days after the region was hit by a weather event known as a “derecho” – a widespread, long-lasting storm accompanied by a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.

“Many people are without power again. We just came through the derecho scandal a few weeks ago, which was extremely devastating and many are still recovering from,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county that includes Houston, in a video posted on social media late Tuesday.

Several tornadoes were reported in the state over the weekend. One of them ripped through Cooke County, about 50 miles north of Dallas, on Saturday evening. The dangerous storms left seven people dead just before Memorial Day.

Another 16 people died in the United States in severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that hit several states over the holiday weekend.

These storms also impacted travel on Memorial Day, leading to hundreds of canceled or delayed flights across the country. Heavy rain also pounded Interstate 95, the main north-south highway connecting the East Coast.