Power outages scattered across storm-battered Texas could linger into the weekend after devastating storms with high winds and heavy rain flooded the streets in Houston for the second time this month, leaving one teenager dead and other people injured.
In the Dallas area, storms packing up to 80 mph straight-line winds ripped off roofs, downed trees, and knocked out power lines.
At one point, more than 1 million homes and businesses across the state were left without electricity, but about 75 percent were back up and running by late in the day on May 29. Electric utility provider Oncor said power should be restored for most of its customers in the Dallas area but that some outages would continue into the weekend.
Houston suffered flooding and damage just weeks after another storm pummeled the area, killing eight people.
On May 28, a 16-year-old was killed at a construction site in Magnolia, northeast of Houston. The teen, who was employed by a construction company, died when the home that he was working on collapsed, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
“Upon their arrival, first responders quickly worked and located the trapped male. It is with profound sadness that we report a 16-year-old juvenile male was not able to exit the structure and was pronounced deceased on the scene. The juvenile male is confirmed to be an employee of the construction company and was authorized to be on site,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Caleb Cole said in a statement.
The name of the teen boy wasn’t released.
Three others at a campground north of Houston, including a 6-year-old boy, were shocked by a downed power line. All three were listed in critical condition, authorities said.
Other Incidents
In the Houston suburb of Spring, a couple driving during the storm spotted a pickup truck submerged in a culvert and stopped to help.Ashley Renee Young said her boyfriend, Robert Chance, broke the back window of the vehicle using a sledgehammer from his toolbox. Mr. Chance managed to pull the driver from the vehicle and then bought the man a shirt from a nearby gas station before driving him home. The driver of the vehicle suffered only minor cuts from the broken glass.
“I think we have lifelong friends now,” Ms. Young said.
Destructive storms over the Memorial Day weekend killed 24 people in seven states across the South, stretching from Texas to Virginia.
Seven of those deaths occurred on the night of May 25, when a devastating tornado ripped through Valley View in North Texas’s Cooke County, killing seven, including four children, ages 2, 5, 9, and 15, officials said. The agricultural community of barely 800 residents was left in ruins.
“It’s been exhausting and heartbreaking,” Valley View Police Chief Justin Stamms said. “I’ve seen this kind of damage on TV, but never in person before this. It’s terrible.”
The National Weather Service said the “very active and highly impactful” weather pattern will continue in the central United States for the next several days.
Thunderstorms were predicted to develop on May 30 across eastern Montana, Wyoming, and northeast Colorado before moving into Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and northern Texas.
