Texas floods leave 7 dead as thunderstorms bring 'derecho storm' to Houston (2024)

Nearly a million people were left without power as gusty winds downed trees and even transmission powers, spreading debris and devastation across Houston - Seven people have died

At least seven people have died as a result of the sweeping storms that battered Texas on Thursday and Friday.

Authorities in Houston scrambled to clean up and restore power to thousands of people affected by widespread outages. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported that three people died during the storm, including an 85-year-old woman whose home caught fire after being struck by lightning and a 60-year-old man who had tried to use his vehicle to power his oxygen tank.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire previously said at least four people were killed in the city when the storms swept through Harris County, which includes Houston. It could take "weeks" for power to be restored in some areas, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Friday.

The severe weather event was called a "derecho," a widespread, long-lasting, straight-line wind storm associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system. Derechos can bring hurricane-force winds, heavy rains, and flash floods.

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Fierce storms with winds of up to 100 mph (161 kph) blew out windows downtown, while a tornado touched down Thursday near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress.

With multiple transmission towers down, Hidalgo urged patience. Another 21,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, where strong winds and a suspected tornado hit, down from a peak of 215,000. “We are going to have to talk about this disaster in weeks, not days,” Hidalgo said.

She said she had heard “horror stories of just terror and powerlessness” as the storm came through. The weather service also reported straight-line winds of up to 100 mph (161 kph) in the suburbs of Baytown and Galena Park.

The widespread destruction brought much of Houston to a standstill. Trees, debris and shattered glass littered the streets. One building’s brick wall was ripped off.

School districts in the Houston area cancelled classes Friday for more than 400,000 students and government offices were closed. City officials urged people to avoid downtown and stay off roads, many of which were flooded or lined with downed power lines and malfunctioning traffic lights.

Mayor Whitmire warned that police were out in force, including state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting. He said the speed and intensity of the storm caught many off guard. "Most Houstonians didn’t have time to place themselves out of harms way,” Whitmire said at a news conference.

Noelle Delgado’s pulled up Thursday night to Houston Pets Alive, the animal rescue organisation where she is executive director to find the dogs and cats — more than 30 in all — were uninjured, but the awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled and water was leaking inside. She hoped to find foster homes for the animals. “I could definitely tell that this storm was a little different,” she said. “It felt terrifying.”

Whitmire signed disaster declaration, which paves the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance. President Joe Biden also issued a disaster declaration, his for seven counties in Texas, including Harris, over severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 26. His action makes federal funding available to people affected by the storms.

Emergency officials in neighbouring Montgomery County described the damage to transmission lines as “catastrophic.” High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for the utility company because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. Damage to just the distribution system is more typical, von Meier said.

How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, including the time it takes to assess the damage, equipment replacement, roadwork access issues and workforce availability. Centerpoint Energy deployed 1,000 employees on Friday and had requested 5,000 more line workers and vegetation professionals.

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On top of the disastrous storms, residents in the area are faced with excessive heat that is projected for Saturday, with a smog warning also in place as all of southern Texas starts to feel the heat. The balmy weather is a concern in a region where more than a half-million homes and businesses remained without electricity Saturday morning — down from nearly 1 million, according to PowerOutage.us.

The National Weather Service in Houston warned that with temperatures hitting around 90 degrees (32.2 C) this weekend, people should know the symptoms of heat exhaustion. ”Don’t overdo yourself during the cleanup process,” it said in a post on the social platform X.

The Houston Health Department said it would distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to area seniors, people with disabilities and caregivers of disabled children. In addition to the heat, the Houston area has also been warned about poor air quality over the weekend. While to the east, heavy rainfall was possible in eastern Louisiana into central Alabama, while parts of Louisiana were warned of the risk of flash floods through Saturday.