Nearly 500,000 homes and establishments in Texas are without power due to a series of potent weather systems.
Nearly 500,000 utility consumers in Texas were left without power by Tuesday, with over 240,000 affected in Dallas County alone, according to data from the website PowerOutage.us.
Hurricane-like winds ravaged Houston and Dallas on Tuesday, with intense storms flooding pathways, toppling trees and power lines, and reducing some buildings to rubble. At least eight people have died in Texas since Saturday due to the extreme weather conditions during the Memorial Day weekend.
The violent weather has joined a string of previous severe storms that have been causing havoc in Texas, rendering citizens with insufficient time to recuperate from one storm before the next one arrives.
The heatwave will ease across Texas this week, but the individuals who remain without power or a means to cool down may still face hazards, such as heat stroke or heat exhaustion. On Wednesday, temperatures in eastern Texas are expected to range between mid to low 80s, according to the National Weather Service.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins cautioned residents to brace for an extended power outage as an area utility company revealed considerable damage to its equipment. Oncor, the utility provider, posted photographs of shattered electricity poles, twisted power lines, and oversized fallen trees.
Widespread power outages also disrupted the primary runoff election in Dallas County on Tuesday, as more than a third of polling stations were left in the dark, according to Jenkins.
"Make sure to check on your friends, family, and neighbors, especially the elderly," Dallas County officials instructed. "Be cautious not to disturb hidden, downed power lines that could still be energized."
One of the affected residents is Esmeralda Martinez, a Dallas County resident living in the suburb of Carrollton. Her home has become a heap of wet scraps and broken timber after she and her family were forced to huddle in a hallway as the storm ripped the roof off, destroying everything in its path.
Martinez’s neighbors, Javon Holloway and his grandmother, feel fortunate that their home was largely spared from significant damage. Despite the chaos that surrounded them, no one was injured.
“Appreciate your home; I can’t stress that enough," Holloway told the CNN affiliate WFAA. "Be thankful for what you have."
Houston experiences déjà vu of damage
Houston-area inhabitants are again grappling with a comparable sensation as they come across the recent wreckage left by Tuesday's storms - just two weeks after a derecho and a tornado ripped through the city, resulting in multiple casualties and close to a million residences and commercial establishments losing power.
Although 99% of these outages had been rectified as of last week, more than 300,000 premises in the Houston area lost power on Tuesday, per the local utility, CenterPoint Energy. As of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 120,000 customers there were still in the dark.
The latest bouts of severe weather also interrupted the town's ongoing recovery from the mid-May storm, which blanketed streets with trees and trash, splintered skyscraper windows, and wrecked buildings.
The damage that had not yet been entirely remedied when Tuesday's storm hit was flung back onto the streets, scattering piles of debris that workers had cleared off the streets and casting more fragments of glass onto Downtown Houston, according to CNN affiliates KTRK and KHOU.
CNN's Andy Rose and Raja Razek contributed to this report.
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Utility providers are reporting that over 300,000 properties in the Houston area lost power due to the recent storms, just two weeks after another severe weather event caused widespread power outages and damage.
Despite efforts to repair damage from the previous storm, the latest weather event further disrupted the city's recovery, scattering debris and casting more fragments of glass onto downtown Houston.
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