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More than 300,000 CenterPoint Energy customers lost power Tuesday afternoon and at least one person was killed as storms with winds as high as 70 mph blew through the Houston area, flooding some neighborhoods, overturning trees and dropping quarter-sized hail.
A structure under construction in Magnolia collapsed during the storm, killing one person, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Winds were still 30 mph slower than the derecho that struck Houston nearly two weeks ago, knocking out power for more than 900,000 customers and killing eight people.
Tuesday’s power outages should be easier to fix, said Matt Lanza, meteorologist and editor for Space City Weather. As of Tuesday evening, the original 300,000 customers without power has gone down to just over 211,000 people.
“In these types of situations, the damage is not as extensive and there should be less in the way to restore power,” Lanza said. “CenterPoint should be able to get a majority of people back on by tonight.”
Paul Lock, manager of government relations for CenterPoint, said crews will be assessing the damage tonight and tomorrow morning. Once the assessment finishing, the company will know how long it will take to restore power in Houston. The damage was widespread and scattered throughout Harris County, with pockets in the north, south and northwest.
“We always work to harden our system and to make it stronger,” Lock said. “We have just finished restoring power from May 16. Now, we have mutual assistance folks turning around and coming back to help.”
All services are suspended for MetroRail and all express lanes are currently closed for the HOV/HOT lanes due to flooding, according to Houston Metro. The red line is down due to a power outage, while the green and purple lines are down due to flooding. Multiple bus routes are experiencing delays due the storms, but are not suspended.
“It is devastating for whoever is impacted, and we do have too many people who are without power,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. “That’s a lot of people. And you can have folks who are medically dependent on power.”
Where are these storms coming from?
The National Weather Service had released a severe thunderstorm watch until 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Storm clouds brewed near Dallas this morning and the outflow of wind gusts created thunderstorms over the Piney Woods region.
Those storms moved southward toward Houston this afternoon. High pressure on the East Coast induced moist air to flow toward Southeast Texas and the southern plains, providing fuel to develop thunderstorms.
On Monday, the heat index reached 115 degrees around the Houston area, which primes the atmosphere for severe weather and thunderstorms.
Due to the severity of the storm this afternoon, another wave of storms predicted for tonight will weaken or completely miss Houston. However, Houstonians should be prepared for additional storms this week.
Nearly a million utility customers lost power throughout the Houston area after a severe derecho blew through the city about two weeks ago, killing eight people. Winds reached as high as 100 mph, according to the National Weather Service, toppling trees, blowing out windows and littering streets and driveways with debris.
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