Severe thunderstorms leave widespread damage, power outages around Houston

HOUSTON – A line of severe thunderstorms swept through southeastern Texas and Louisiana on Thursday, blasting the Houston area with ferocious winds that left at least four dead – including a mother of a newborn – and more than 1 million power customers without electricity.

Winds reported as high as 78 mph toppled trees, blew out windows of high-rise buildings and caused transmission towers holding power lines to crumble. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office and National Weather Service encouraged everyone to stay off the roads. 

Rain and debris poured into the lobby at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Houston.

“Widespread debris, glass and electrical lines are in the streets,” the NWS warned.

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. The line of storms eventually raced east into Louisiana, pummeling New Orleans with gusts of 84 mph and leaving over 200,000 in Louisiana without power. 

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“It was kind of crazy — I was up in my bedroom and all of a sudden my alarm starts going off: ‘Tornado Warning! Tornado Warning! Take shelter,’ ” Juan Alcala told FOX Weather.  “All of a sudden everything just turns dark, and you could see outside the wind started coming in, and the rain — it was just dark.”

Mother of newborn among 4 killed by storm

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said at least four people were killed by the storm, and state resources were being requested to help with the recovery. At least two were killed by falling trees, and a third was killed by a falling crane, officials said.

A 31-year-old woman who had recently given birth to her fourth child was killed when a tree fell across their car in their driveway, according to FOX 26 Houston. The station reports the woman had concerns about the stability of the tree in the storm and had gone out to the car to move it out of the way when the tree toppled, pinning her inside.

A 73-year-old man was killed while working inside a cement truck when a crane toppled into the cab, FOX 26 reported. 

“We had a storm with 100 mph winds — the equivalent of Hurricane Ike. (There’s) considerable damage downtown,” Whitmire said during a press conference Thursday night. “We had firefighters taking live wires off (Interstate) 290 that was blocking thoroughfares.”

Whitmire warned that most of the traffic lights across the city were down, “and they will be down for considerable hours.”

METRO Houston reported several disruptions to its METRORail lines, with debris covering tracks in several locations. Bus shuttles were providing emergency service, but officials warned that bus routes were encountering significant delays and detours due to damage around the city. 

‘Rain and debris poured into the lobby’

WATCH A WIND TURBINE DISINTEGRATE IN TEXAS AFTER A LIGHTNING STRIKE

The local National Weather Service office issued several Tornado Warnings for the Houston metro on Thursday evening, but by the time the storms cleared, strong winds were believed to have caused most of the damage.

“The roof of the Hyatt Regency downtown blew out,” a customer at the hotel told FOX Weather. “Rain and debris poured down to the lobby.”

He said staff were doing their best to keep people safe and away from the debris.

Windows appeared to be blown out in other downtown buildings, including around the Wells Fargo Plaza. 

The broken glass and debris forced city leaders to implore non-essential downtown workers to stay home on Friday and ask business owners to be flexible with employee absences.

In nearby Minute Maid Park, wind and water were seen blowing into the building, but the severe weather did not appear to affect the play of the Astros baseball game.

Rain and wind sweep through before the game between the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics Minute Maid Park on May 16, 2024 in Houston, Texas.

(Logan Riely / Getty Images)

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“It is all hands on deck tonight…Downtown is a mess, so stay at home tonight and tomorrow,” Whitmire said.

Local residents described the storm’s impacts as hurricane-like despite the severe weather lasting less than an hour.

Due to the severe weather, ground stops were also issued at Bush Intercontinental Airport and Houston William P. Hobby Airport. At the peak of the storm, gusts at both airports reached 62 mph.  A gust of 71 mph was clocked in College Station, while Cypress hit a gust of 65 mph. A wind gauge along the water in the Highlands area near I-10 reported a gust of 78 mph.

Storm clouds move over Houston on May 16, 2024.

(@khvetkevych via X / FOX Weather)

The Houston school district closed all public schools Friday and said they would reopen Monday. 

The dangerous thunderstorms were expected to transition into a flood threat during the overnight hours as already saturated grounds were expected to receive an additional 2-5 inches of rainfall.

“Everyone’s coming together — that’s what we do best in Houston,” Whitmire said. “Let’s get through this challenge.”

84 mph wind rakes New Orleans as storms sweep Gulf Coast

The line of severe thunderstorms continued their march across the Gulf Coast Thursday night into early Friday morning, leaving a trail of wind damage and power outages there in their wake.

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.

More damaging wind gusts hugged the Gulf Coast as the thunderstorms moved east.  Wind gauges around Port St. Joe in the Florida Panhandle clocked gusts of 71, 74 and 87 mph Friday morning, according to National Weather Service storm reports.