Powerful overnight storm knocks out power to 150K
A powerful and fast-moving storm system Wednesday night knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the Houston area, thousands of which were still without power Thursday morning.
Early Thursday, CenterPoint Energy said it had restored power to some 213,265 customers within the past 24 hours. There were still 1,508 active outages, with 158,193 customers affected, according to the company's outage tracker.
And while those numbers were easily quantifiable, the exact extent of the damage caused by the storm remained unclear but sustained winds as powerful as 60 mph were believed to have knocked down trees and branches, causing damage to energy transition and distribution lines in areas mainly north of Houston.
OUTAGES: Stay on top of the power outages with our tracker
At what seemed to have been the height of the outages, around 10 p.m. Wednesday, more than 300,000 CenterPoint Energy customers had been without power, the outage tracker showed.
The company didn’t provide estimates as to when power would be fully restored but said crews worked overnight, restoring as many customers as possible and work would continue throughout Thursday.
The National Weather Service in League City had warned of possible thunderstorms going into Wednesday evening. A line of storms began to develop southeast of Dallas around 6 p.m., and began moving quickly to the south.
The brunt of the storm arrived in the Houston area around 9 p.m. A National Weather Service monitor at Bush Intercontinental Airport recorded a wind gust of 97 mph just after 9 p.m., according to preliminary storm data posted online Wednesday night. Flights to and from the airport were stopped as of 10 p.m., according to FlightAware, an airport tracking website, but were back in business by Thursday morning.
Courtesy/National Weather Service
The exact extent of the damage in areas around The Woodlands, Spring and Tomball wasn’t clear. The weather service received some reports of planes damaged at David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport in Spring, meteorologist Cameron Self said Wednesday night.
After the storms passed, temperatures across the region dropped into the mid-70s, which were some of the lowest temperatures reported in the past two weeks. But the cool weather wasn’t expected to last long, according to the weather service.
Thursday
Another hot day is expected, but high temperatures could be marginally cooler than Wednesday. Temperatures will reach the 90s, but humidity will make it feel like it’s between 106 and 110 degrees in most of Southeast Texas. A heat advisory will be in effect all day.
"Conditions still look hot enough that this heat will still be dangerous if you don't guard against it. This is especially true for those who are without power from last night," the National Weather Service posted Thursday morning.
The forecast calls for a chance of showers and thunderstorms throughout the day.
Now Playing: A Montgomery County Constable and a pair of bystanders start to clear a downed tree blocking part of Rayford Road, east of the Grand Parkway, after on storm blew through the area, knocking out power for a large portion of the area on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 in Spring Video: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle
Looking ahead
More showers are possible through Friday afternoon, according to the weather service.
Thursday and Friday’s brief cool-down will be all the relief Southeast Texas gets from the heat. Triple-digit temperatures are expected to return on Saturday. Very dry conditions and dangerous temperatures are expected to persist through the middle of next week.
Source: Houston Chronicle
