- Author, Nadine Yousif
- Role, BBC News
Nearly 600,000 customers were without power in Texas after severe storms hit the northeastern US state.
The latest round of storms brought hurricane-force wind gusts of up to 75 mph and golf ball-sized hail.
Tuesday’s severe weather follows several weekend storms that killed at least 24 people in five states, including Texas.
Sweltering heat is also affecting South Texas, which is still recovering from a storm earlier this month that left hundreds of thousands without power.
Some North Texans woke up to the sound of tornado sirens on Tuesday, after the National Weather Service (NWS) issued warnings in and around Dallas due to severe thunderstorms.
Residential streets were flooded, trees and power lines were downed throughout the city.
A disaster declaration has been made for Dallas County as officials continue to assess the damage.
At its peak, more than 1,070,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning.
Nearly a third of the power outages reported Tuesday were in Dallas County.
Hundreds of flights from Dallas were also delayed or canceled Tuesday morning due to the storms.
The Dallas Zoo said on X, formerly Twitter, that it had suffered a “significant blow” and would also close Tuesday to assess the damage.
Authorities said it could take several days before power is restored.
“This is unfortunately going to be a multi-day power outage situation,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told reporters.
He asked residents to watch out for their neighbors and “be accommodating.”
“Because this is unfortunately going to last longer than we’ve seen here in a while and a lot of the places without power will include hotels and things of that nature,” he said, according to NBC.
Grant Cruise, a spokesman for Oncor, Texas’ largest utility company, said: “In many cases these will not be simple repairs, we are looking at a complete rebuild of parts of our region . »
Fires that authorities believe are weather-related – started by lightning or power surges – have destroyed several homes in the Dallas area.
The fire also destroyed a historic church in Royse City, northeast of Dallas.
Hurricane-force winds were also reported in Houston later in the day, where the city’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport recorded a wind gust of 75 mph.
Some North Texas counties are expected to remain under a severe thunderstorm watch through Wednesday morning.
The NWS warned of possible flash flooding in north and central Texas, as well as parts of southern Oklahoma.
Texas suffered a devastating weekend of storms that killed at least seven people in the state and injured more than 100.
Among those killed were three children – a two-year-old and a five-year-old who belonged to the same family, as well as a nine-year-old.
Authorities estimate that more than 200 homes or structures were destroyed and another 120 damaged. The area with the most damage was Cooke County, where a tornado with winds of up to 135 mph struck a mobile home park.
Additional storm-related deaths were reported over the weekend in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Alabama.
A heat wave also hit the region.
The NWS said high temperatures are expected to remain above average or near record levels in central and south Florida over the next few days.
Earlier in May, a powerful tornado ripped through a rural Iowa town and killed four people.
Government forecasters have also described this summer as a possibly “extraordinary” 2024 hurricane season in the Atlantic, which begins next month.
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News Source : www.bbc.com
