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HOUSTON (AP) — Power outages could last weeks in parts of Houston, an official warned Friday, after thunderstorms with hurricane-force winds tore through the city, knocking out electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses in the region, blowing out windows on downtown high rises and flipping vehicles.

The National Weather Service said it confirmed a tornado with peak winds of 110 mph (177 kph) touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cyprus in Harris County.

 

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, said crews were still trying to determine the extent of the damage and the number of casualties from Thursday’s storms. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said four people, and possibly five, had died.

“It was fierce. It was intense. It was quick, and most Houstonians didn’t have time to place themselves out of harms way,” Whitmire said at a news conference.

 

With multiple transmission towers down, Hidalgo urged patience. Thousands of utility workers were headed to the area, where power had already been restored to roughly 200,000 customers. Another 100,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, down from a peak of 215,000.

“We are going to have to talk about this disaster in weeks, not days,” Hidalgo said.

She said she had heard “horror stories of just terror and powerlessness” as the storm came through. The weather service also reported straight-line winds of up to 100 mph (161 kph) in downtown Houston and the suburbs of Baytown and Galena Park.

A double disaster of widespread power outages and high temperatures could be brewing in Houston after a derecho battered the region Thursday night.

“Temperatures in Houston will surpass 90 degrees this weekend and into the week ahead,” weather.com digital meteorologist Jonathan Belles said Friday. “Following recent rainfall and lingering moisture, it will feel more like the upper 90s to near 100 degrees during the afternoon. This combination of summer-like heat and humidity and the lack of air conditioning could cause heat exhaustion and other heat-related conditions.”

 

T​he weather could be especially dangerous for those who exert themselves during clean up or who have nowhere to go to cool off.

M​ore than 650,000 homes, business and other utility customers remained without power Friday evening in Texas, according to PowerOutage.us. Nearly all of those were in Harris County, where Houston is located.

 

 


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