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Derecho causes considerable damage in the Houston, Texas area

As the Houston area recovers from a spring storm, it must also prepare for hurricane season, just days away.

HOUSTON — Initial damage assessments are underway. Precinct 1 Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis says the rare derecho that hit the Houston area on May 16 caused between $5 billion and $8 billion in damage.

A derecho is a widespread, destructive wind storm that can gust up to 60 to 100 mph, or even stronger in extreme cases.

Ellis says the event paralyzed the area so much because people there aren’t used to derechos, or even tornadoes.

“People couldn’t prepare because we didn’t know it was going to happen. People had no water, batteries or other essentials. It simply put incredible pressure on us,” the commissioner explained to us. In Texas Politics. “You’re talking about 5:30 p.m. In 30 minutes, it wreaked havoc on a major metropolitan area in America.”

At least eight people died.

Nearly a million customers lost power.

The strong winds easily toppled huge transmission line towers, utility poles and trees.

CenterPoint Energy says up to 98% of power has been restored since then. But it took more than 5,000 utility workers from Texas and several other states. This is in addition to CenterPoint’s several thousand employees.

Downtown Houston, the area’s governing body, says about 4,000 windows were damaged downtown and the windows could be boarded up for months.

Ellis says area leaders will need to start considering stricter standards for buildings to prepare for unforeseen events like a derecho.

He said these stricter building codes would also help in times of hurricanes.

And as the Houston area continues to clean up, it must also prepare for hurricane season, which begins June 1.

Ellis says they’ll be ready…for what they know.

“We’re going to be ready for what we’ve seen in the past. What we can’t say we’re ready for is what’s never happened before,” he said.