By The opinion
May 18, 2024, 00:03 AM EDT
At least seven people died in the city of Houston and surrounding county after extreme weather toppled power lines, trees and brick walls, officials said Friday.
Three of the deaths occurred in unincorporated Harris County, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, and four occurred in Houston, according to officials there.
There was an EF-1 tornado with 110 mph winds in Cypress, and Houston experienced straight-line winds that peaked at 100 mph, the National Weather Service said.
A landslide was captured on video and shared on social networks:
COLLAPSE CAUGHT ON VIDEO | This video was sent in by Jeff Baker along Washington Ave during the storms.
If you have photos or videos of damage, share them through the Near Me feature of our app. But please don’t put yourself in danger to get the shot.https://t.co/9IDA7WKAbg pic.twitter.com/D2LTEsxoNU
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) May 17, 2024
The three reported deaths in unincorporated Harris County announced Friday included a man who collapsed while trying to move a fallen power pole; a woman who was found dead in a trailer after lightning struck it and started a fire; and a man who was found dead after going to his truck to plug in an oxygen tank after the power went out.
Two of the four people who died in Houston were killed by falling trees, a third died when a crane blew over and the circumstances of the fourth were not detailed in a briefing.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said that The city experienced “an exceptionally strong storm” Thursday night.
Both he and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top government executive, signed disaster declarations in the wake of the storms. Declarations allow for additional authority and help.
“Houstonians, stay home tonight. Recovery will continue into tomorrow,” Whitmire said Friday. He compared the winds to those from Hurricane Ike that hit in 2008 and said there was “considerable damage downtown.”
CenterPoint Energy said in a statement that outages caused by the storm peaked at about 922,000 homes and businesses. There were about 574,000 customers without power as of 7 p.m. Friday, according to its website.
Restoring power to the hardest-hit areas could take days, the utility said.
Thursday’s deadly storm is now classified as a Derechoa type of straight-line wind storm, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
A Derecho is a widespread, long-lasting wind storm associated with a band of fast-moving showers or thunderstorms, if the wind damage extends more than 240 miles and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph or more over most of its length.
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