HOUSTON, TX – Seven individuals tragically lost their lives in the wake of severe storms which resulted in power loss for several hundred thousand businesses and homes in the Houston area last Thursday. This event marks the second calamity of this nature to befall Southeast Texas this month. Officials stated last Friday that sections of Houston could suffer power outages for weeks due to the severity of the damage.
The aftermath of the storm is no less menacing, with escalating temperatures and smog warnings making clean-up efforts more difficult. Marc Chenard, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, anticipates highs of 90 degrees lasting until next week, and heat indexes nearly hitting 100 degrees by midweek. Residents were encouraged to refrain from overexerting themselves during the extensive clean-up process.
The casualties of the storm were reported by various officials. Houston Mayor John Whitmire commented on Thursday evening that four lives were lost during the storm. Two of these deaths were attributed to falling trees, and another was caused by a crane being blown down by the wind. The Sheriff of Harris County, Ed Gonzalez, reported additional deaths on Friday, including a 57-year-old male who was struck by an electrical pole, an 85-year-old female who died in a fire started by a lightning strike, and a 60-year-old male who was found dead when trying to adjust his oxygen tank due to a power loss.
The storm also severely impacted several buildings in the area, especially those in the downtown region, creating dangerous roads strewn with broken glass and debris. Furthermore, educational activity was disrupted as the Houston Independent School District had to close all of its schools on Friday following the disaster.
The enormity of the situation became clear when more than one million customers in Texas found themselves without power on Thursday night. As per a Saturday report, around 545,000 customers were still struggling without power, with more than 531,000 of these located in Harris County, which is home to around 4.7 million people.