The National Weather Service recorded wind speeds up to 70-75 mph during the deadly storms that battered the Houston area on Thursday evening, senior meteorologist Josh Lichter said.
A tornado touched down in the Cypress area. The storms caused power outages at more than 920,000 homes and businesses.
At least four people died Thursday as a result of the severe weather, according to the City of Houston.
I’m over in the Cypress area assessing the damage of yesterday’s storm, which @houmayor said carried winds comparable to Hurricane Ike.
— Colleen DeGuzman (@acolleendg) May 17, 2024
There’s major tree damage in northwest Houston. Roads have been cleared to allow traffic through. @HoustonPubMedia pic.twitter.com/NN6rrc15QE
“It roughly started in and around the Cypress area,” Lichter said. “Those speeds, again based on the radar, increased as we headed into the Houston area, especially the downtown area where we had a lot of the windows blown out on some of the skyscrapers. Those winds continued up to the west end of Galveston Bay, and that’s where we had another one of those 74 mile-per-hour wind gusts measured by one of the stations over there.”
Thousands still without power
More than 700,000 people were still without power around Houston on Friday morning, according to CenterPoint Energy.
CenterPoint crews were working to assess damage and make repairs, but urged customers to be prepared for extended weather-related outages and delays in their outage notifications.
In Cypress, transmission lines came crashing down during the gusts of extreme wind that push through Thursday evening near West and Fry roads.
School closures
Dozens of school districts will not hold classes on Friday as officials plan to assess damage caused by Thursday evening storms that left windows shattered and trees in roadways.
At least four people died from the storms that surged through Houston on Thursday evening, officials said.
“The initial indications are that we had fallen trees cause two of the fatalities," Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said Thursday night. "One was a crane accident as well that was blown over by the wave of the strong winds. So right now, the Houston Police Department is on the scene, doing their investigations so we won't know the exact cause of death but that's what the indications are right now."
Houston, Cy-Fair, Spring Branch, Conroe, Sheldon, Crosby, Cleveland, Klein, Shepherd, Spring, Hempstead, Aldine and Galena Park Independent School Districts are among those that will be closed Friday.
Most state district courts in Harris County also will be closed Friday, and jury service was cancelled.
Shattered glass sprawled across some downtown streets after storms and heavy winds blew through the area. Downed trees extended across streets in northwest Houston and Montrose.
METRO services, express lanes impacted
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), the region’s public transit provider, is reducing and modifying its services on Friday in response to Thursday night’s storm.
All park & ride services are suspended until further notice, METRO announced Friday morning. Delays also should be expected for buses as well as METROLift and the transit authority’s curb2curb service, along with reduced frequency and bus shuttle service for the Green, Purple and Red METRORail lines.
Additionally, the high-occupancy vehicle and express lanes will be closed on Interstate 45, I-69/U.S. 59 and U.S. 290.