What damage did Storm Derecho cause in Houston, Texas?

HOUSTON — As residents continue to clean up after a rare derecho storm that ravaged the Houston area on May 16, Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis shared an initial assessment of the damage left behind.

Ellis recently spoke to KHOU 11’s sister station WFAA in Dallas on Inside Texas Politics and said the rare derecho caused between $5 billion and $8 billion in damage.

WATCH: Full interview with Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis on Inside Texas Politics.

According to the NWS, a storm is classified as a derecho if the band of wind damage extends more than 240 miles and has wind gusts of at least 58 mph along most of the storm’s path . This spawned confirmed EF-1 tornadoes in Cypress and Waller County and a trace of widespread straight-line wind damage in Houston and Baytown.

RELATED: National Weather Service says derecho storm caused damage in Southeast Texas. Here’s what it means

Ellis said 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 just put an incredible amount of pressure on us,” the commissioner said on Inside 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.

RELATED: 8 dead following severe storms in Houston area

Nearly 1 million CenterPoint Energy customers lost power. The strong winds easily toppled huge transmission line towers, utility poles and trees.

CenterPoint Energy said up to 98% of power has been restored since then, but that required more than 5,000 utility workers in Texas and several other states. This is in addition to CenterPoint’s several thousand employees.

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

RELATED: Downtown Houston damage: Building wall collapses; storm blows out skyscraper windows

RELATED: Severe storms rolled through the Houston area. These are photos and videos of them.

Ellis said 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.

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

“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,” Ellis said.

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