Power outages could persist for days after storms hit Texas again, killing 1

HOUSTON (AP) — Scattered power outages Wednesday in storm-weary Texas could persist into the weekend after storms flooded Houston streets for the second time this month and tore off roofs of Dallas, leaving one teenager dead and injuring others.

The teen was killed Tuesday at a construction site while working on a house that collapsed, and three people at a campground were shocked by a downed power line. Severe weather left more than a million homes and businesses without power at one point.

Electric utility Oncor said power in the Dallas area should be restored by Friday to most of its customers, but some outages will continue into the weekend. More than a million homes and businesses were without power across Texas at one point, but as of Wednesday evening, the lights had returned to more than 75% of those customers.

Houston was flooded and damaged just weeks after a storm hit the area, killing eight people. The 16-year-old worker was killed northeast of the city, in the suburb of Magnolia. He was employed at a construction company, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.

A 6-year-old boy and two others who were shocked by the downed power line at a campground north of Houston were in critical condition, authorities said.

Witnesses saw a 59-year-old man touch the line Tuesday, but investigators were trying to determine how the other two were shocked, Montgomery County Fire Marshal Jimmy Williams said Wednesday.

A couple driving during the storm in the Houston suburb of Spring missed a turn and then spotted a pickup truck submerged in a culvert.

Ashley Renee Young said her boyfriend, Robert Chance, grabbed a hammer from his toolbox, broke the back window and pulled out the driver, who suffered only minor cuts from the broken glass. They then bought the man a shirt at a nearby gas station before driving him home.

“I think we have friends for life now,” Young said.

The risk of heavy rain, localized flash flooding and severe weather conditions continued Wednesday in Oklahoma and Texas. Thunderstorms were forecast Wednesday and Thursday evening across eastern Montana, Wyoming and northeastern Colorado before spreading into Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas.

Tuesday’s power outages in the Dallas area prompted officials to extend voting in the runoff election by two hours after dozens of polling places lost power due to winds gusting to 80 mph (129 km/h). h which caused significant damage.

Social media posts showed winds pushing an unoccupied American Airlines plane away from a gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. No one was injured, but the airport said about 500 flights were canceled due to the weather.

The National Weather Service said the “very active and high impact” weather pattern would continue across the central United States over the next few days.

Destructive storms over Memorial Day weekend killed 24 people in seven Southern states, with deaths stretching from Texas to Virginia.

For more information on recent tornado reports, see The Associated Press Tornado Tracker.

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Miller reported from Edmond, Oklahoma. Associated Press journalists Paul J. Weber, John Seewer and Beatrice Dupuy contributed.