Powerful storms tore through Texas last week, killing at least seven people including a new born. The winds reaching 100 mph hit the state. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a briefing Thursday the winds were reminiscent of 2008 Hurricane Ike, one of the costliest natural disasters in American history. A widespread 3 to 6 inches of rain fell north of Houston, with one of the highest totals reaching around 6.9 inches in 24 hours near Romayor.
PowerOutage.us reported that more than 800,000 people in the Houston metro area lost power, but with nearby counties also dealing with outages, the state’s tally climbed to well over 1 million customers at the storm’s peak. More than a half million were still without power in Houston as of early Saturday morning.
On the other hand, tens of thousands lost power in New Orleans, part of 200,000 power outages in Louisiana during the peak of the storm. New Orleans International Airport recorded two gusts of 84 mph and another gust of 76 mph, as New Orleans’ Lakefront Airport recorded a gust of 82 mph. Accompanying heavy rains left some streets and underpasses flooded around the New Orleans area. Nearly 550,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity in Texas early Saturday — down from a peak of nearly 1 million but still a significant issue.
The National Weather Service warned of temperatures soaring to around 90 degrees this weekend. The NWS advised the citizens not to ‘overdo’ themselves.
President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration on Friday for seven Texas counties, making residents and businesses eligible for federal assistance.
