Power has been restored to areas hardest hit by Houston's deadly storm, with full service expected by Wednesday

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston area residents affected by deadly storms last week received some good news as officials said power was restored Sunday to the majority of the hundreds of thousands of people who had been left in the dark and without air conditioning for hot and humid weather.

Widespread destruction caused by Thursday’s storms left at least seven dead and paralyzed much of Houston. Thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds devastated the city, reducing businesses and other structures to piles of debris, uprooting trees and shattering glass from downtown skyscrapers.

A tornado also touched down near Cypress, a northwest suburb of Houston.

As of Sunday evening, 88% of Houston-area customers had their power restored, said Paul Lock, a spokesman for CenterPoint Energy.

“We hope to have everyone back by the end of the work on Wednesday,” Lock said.

More than 240,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained without power Sunday evening, mostly in the Houston area. More than 1,780 customers remained without power in Louisiana, which was also hit by high winds and a suspected tornado.

CenterPoint Energy said 2,000 employees and more than 5,000 contractors were working in the Houston area to restore power.

“We understand that the warmer temperatures we are experiencing in Houston and surrounding communities make it even more important to restore lighting and air conditioning,” said Lynnae Wilson, CenterPoint’s senior vice president of electrical operations, in a statement.

At one of five cooling centers for people still without power in their homes, residents sheltered from the heat at a community center in the Cloverleaf neighborhood and wondered when the power would come back. At least 15 community centers were expected to serve as cooling centers in the Houston area on Monday.

Carolina Sierra and her 6-year-old son Derek enjoyed the air conditioning for a few hours on Sunday. She said they had been without power since Thursday’s storm and their home was sweltering.

Derek passed the time coloring a picture of a dragon while his mother charged her cell phone and a portable light that they planned to use Sunday evening if the power still wasn’t restored. Sierra said she gives her son several baths to try to keep him cool, but he tosses and turns at night and has trouble sleeping.

“We are desperate,” Sierra said. “We barely sleep at night because of the heat. »

Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia stood outside the center on Sunday, helping load water and ice onto vehicles while offering words of encouragement to residents still waiting for the power is restored. Nearly 500 vehicles lined up at the center Sunday to get water and ice.

“We are seeing some recovery,” Garcia said. “But we can’t see enough and fast enough.”

Disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and loans from the Small Business Administration were on the way, said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county where Houston is located . Federal aid, which can help fund temporary housing and repairs, will help residents affected by last week’s storms as well as flooding due to heavy rain in late April and early May in parts of Houston, Harris County and several counties north of Houston.

Mayor John Whitmire said a six-block area of downtown Houston would be closed Monday to allow crews to continue repairs after windows of several high-rise buildings were torn out.

Residents cheered as the lights and air conditioning came on at the eight-story Houston Heights Tower, a senior housing facility, Sunday morning. The nearly 200 residents had been living on backup electricity since Thursday evening, with generators providing enough electricity to run just one of the building’s elevators and a handful of fans in the community room, leaving the apartments in the darkness.

Volunteers and city workers ensured residents received a constant supply of water, food and essentials like toilet paper.

“It just shows how people come together,” resident Joseph Torregrossa said, fighting back tears.

The National Weather Service said in a post on social platform X that residents should expect “sunny, warm and increasingly humid days” in the Houston area. High temperatures of around 90 degrees (32 Celsius) were expected this week, with heat indexes likely near 102 degrees (39 Celsius) by midweek.

As the temperature reached 91 degrees (33 Celsius) Sunday afternoon, Lisa Reed sat on a folding chair outside her home in the Cloverleaf neighborhood because she was still without power. A volunteer team of AFL-CIO apprentices who had contacted Garcia’s district office had just cut down a large tree in his front yard that had crashed into two vehicles in his driveway and had carefully stacked the wood in half big pile.

Reed said no home on his street, where branches and other debris were piled up along the sidewalk, escaped damage from last week’s storms.

“There’s nothing I can do,” said Reed, a fifth-grade teacher. “Take it all calmly. I firmly believe that God will fix all of this.

Houston-area school districts canceled classes for more than 400,000 students Friday. The Houston Independent School District, the state’s largest, said 215 of its 274 campuses would be open Monday. Two other large Houston-area school districts, Cypress-Fairbanks and Spring Branch, planned to be closed.