A recent wave of violent thunderstorms sweeping through Houston have left much of the city in a scene of wreckage. With what meteorologist have likened to “the wind damage of a hurricane” the deadly storms resulted in a downed crane, blown out skyscraper windows, and fallen trees – leading to up to four confirmed fatalities.
Reported wind speeds of 80 mph tore through the Houston area this past Thursday. With severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings in place, the storms ripped off a portion of the Hyatt Regency Hotel roof, toppling a crane, transmission towers, trees, and bursted skyscraper windows. Videos captured of the Houston storm revealed streets left with shattered glass. The storms left nearly a million people without power.
The best way I can describe what happened tonight in Houston was that essentially a quick moving equivalent to a category 1 or low-end 2 storm just trucked across a large portion of a major metro area. https://t.co/opiMNabRT7
— Matt Lanza 🤌🏼 (@mattlanza) May 17, 2024
Amid the severe weather, mayor John Whitmire encouraged Houston residents to stay home in a news conference Thursday: “Downtown is a mess. It’s dangerous.” Whitmire also urged businesses to allow employees to work from home this Friday wherein only essential city employees should report to work.
Houston ISD schools have cancelled classes for this Friday, May 17. Schools will reopen on May 20.
🚨 Due to widespread damage across Houston, HISD has coordinated with the City of Houston and is closing all campuses on Friday, May 17. Schools will reopen on Monday, May 20.
— Houston ISD (@HoustonISD) May 17, 2024
The storm resulted in widespread power outages of 850,000 residents – nearly 30% of the power in Harris County according to Eric Berger of SpaceCityWeather.
CenterPoint Energy announced that restoration could be delayed, though Whitmire stated that power could be returned from 24 – 48 hours. CenterPoint encourages residents can stay up to date with the restoration timing via its Outage Tracker. Though at the time of the article, the website is down.
Stay tuned for more details.
See also: These Houston businesses are open in wake of storm with food, electricity, and more