Houston area struggles to recover from storms, flooding – Star-Courier News

7 dead, 900,000 without electricity

HARRIS COUNTY – A powerful storm, with strong winds reaching 100 mph and heavy rain, hit the area Thursday evening, taking many residents by surprise. The damage was extensive, including fallen trees, downed power lines and blocked traffic.

Centerpoint Energy reported more than 900,000 customers without power hours after the storm began, but had reduced that number to about 700,000 by Friday. They warned that some customers may not get power restored until next week, due to broken main transmission lines and pylons.

Deaths from severe weather were initially reported at 4 people, but by the end of the week that number had risen to at least 7. First responders cited traffic accidents and falling trees as the main causes of death.

County Judge Hidalgo and Houston Mayor Whitmire issued a joint statement Friday on the extent of the damage, urging everyone to take safety precautions, calling next week a “recovery” period and asking for patience to residents.

Judge Hidalgo said she requested disaster aid from the federal government, citing the aftermath. See STORM DAMAGE, Page 7 unique situation of two disasters within a week of each other, the swollen rivers and now the windstorm. Authorities confirmed two EF-1 tornadoes struck Cypress and near Waller.

Comments from the press conference:

Severe storms ravaged the Houston area Thursday evening, causing widespread damage, killing at least four people and knocking out power to nearly 900,000 CenterPoint Energy customers.

High winds toppled power lines, blew out windows and toppled trees. The National Weather Service said gusts of about 60 mph to 75 mph were measured, with the strongest winds reported at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, William Hobby Airport, Cypress and the East of Harris County.

“We unfortunately had four deaths,” Mayor John Whitmire said during a press briefing. “We’re still in recovery mode.” Whitmire said winds were reaching up to 100 mph in some places.

With much of the city without power, Houston ISD canceled classes Friday after coordinating with city officials. The Aldine, Cy-Fair, Goose Creek and Spring Branch school districts also canceled Friday classes.

“Downtown is a mess,” said Whitmire, who encouraged the business community to allow employees to work from home while city crews cleaned debris and broken glass from streets and sidewalks.

“We are in recovery mode,” Whitmire said, adding that it will take 24 hours to get everything set and operational in some areas, and 48 hours in others.

Firefighters have removed live wires from highways, the mayor said, urging people to stay away from downtown because of glass and debris.

“It’s all hands on deck tonight,” Whitmire said. “Downtown is a mess,” he said, “stay home tonight, stay home tomorrow.”

The number of outages has overwhelmed CenterPoint Energy, which warned its customers that their outage updates “as well as our ability to provide restoration time estimates may be delayed or unavailable,” asking them to be patient.

The storm interrupted the Astros game and forced ground shutdown operations at both airports.

An army of tow truck drivers were busy removing cars from streets where drivers were not up to the task of flash flooding.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who was in Washington when the storm hit, said several transmission towers had collapsed in the western part of the county and it was unclear how long it would be necessary to clean the roads and restore power.

“What we know so far is that at least four people are believed to have died, there are widespread power outages and damage to power grid infrastructure, as well as significant property damage.” Hidalgo said in a statement Thursday evening.

As the worst of the storm passed, Houston Office of Emergency Management spokesman Brent Taylor warned that Houstonians should stay home for the night.

“Stay off the roads. Do not go out. The storm itself has passed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe to drive,” Taylor said. “Right now, unless you’re absolutely critical or you’re a first responder, you need to stay home or stay where you are. »

Taylor said officials will begin looking at the “recovery process” once the debris and damage is cleaned up. In the meantime, Whitmire also urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel.

As of 8:30 p.m. Thursday evening, more than 896,500 customers were affected by widespread power outages, according to CenterPoint’s outage tracking system. That represents more than 40 percent of the utility’s nearly 2 million customers.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo emergency management spokeswoman said they try to respond as quickly as possible to people who need help.

“Everyone is moving as quickly as possible,” spokeswoman Angelica Luna Kaufman said. “Obviously we’re getting lots of reports of damage, but people are still coming out of their homes to see the damage. »

Residents should call 311 to report downed power lines or other safety-impacting damage. Call 911 only in a life-threatening emergency.