Localized flooding swept across much of Texas and the South Plains Wednesday as residents began cleanup efforts after brutal storms that killed a teenager and knocked out power to more than a million homes and d businesses.
After a storm warning, the National Weather Service said in an advisory Wednesday that additional severe weather would come from the west and that several rounds of thunderstorms were expected Thursday and Friday. The weather service also issued severe thunderstorm warnings Wednesday for parts of Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Florida, with some areas bracing for hail the size of a golf ball and violent wind gusts reaching 70 mph.
More than 380,000 utility customers in Texas were still without power Wednesday evening, according to the USA TODAY outage tracking system, and another 70,000 electricity customers remained in the dark in Kentucky, Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri.
Oncor Electric said some Dallas-area customers may not get power back until Friday.
“We recognize the challenges and inconveniences customers experience after severe storms like this and remain focused on restoring power as quickly and safely as possible,” the company said in a statement.
Some areas around Dallas were drenched by nearly 2 inches of rain in less than four hours Tuesday, AccuWeather reported. Dallas saw 2.35 inches of rain in the entire month of May 2023.
The severe storms also impacted travel at major airports. An American Airlines plane drifted away from its jetway in high winds at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The FAA ordered shutdowns Wednesday at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York due to thunderstorms.
Dallas-area EMS worker shocked by brutal storm damage
Cecilia Wichmann knew storms were coming to the Dallas area on Tuesday, but she didn’t anticipate their intensity or the extent of the damage.
The 44-year-old emergency medical services worker left her home around 6 a.m. and quickly arrived at headquarters in Forney, a small town just east of Dallas. Standing outside the building with some of her colleagues, she felt the temperature drop and the wind pick up.
“That’s when I realized it was going to get worse,” she says. “The rain and wind came out of nowhere.”
Throughout the day, she saw more than a dozen 18-wheelers overturned and at least 100 to 150 homes destroyed by fallen trees and wind damage. Elsewhere, a 16-year-old construction worker was killed when a building under construction collapsed around him near Houston.
Hidden in a closet in central Texas
Kenneth Radley watched the local news for hours Tuesday morning, waiting to see if the powerful storms forecast for Central Texas would reach his home outside Dallas in Kaufman County. They did so, unleashing a deluge of rain, hail and fierce winds within seconds.
Radley rushed into a small closet off his living room – the first time he had taken shelter from a storm. The 79-year-old saw dozens of trees uprooted and the exterior of his home shredded by hail. The wind blew away his detached garage door and buried his truck and golf cart under a pile of debris.
“It took us all day to dig out my truck,” Radley said. The windshield was cracked and the doors and hood were dented, but it remained otherwise drivable, he said.
Same house, different tornado in Kentucky
The powerful storms caused damage well beyond Texas. In Hopkins County, Kentucky, Mark Minton has spent the past few days wondering what the chances are of tornadoes hitting the same house twice.
In 2021, more than two dozen homes were destroyed by an EF-4 tornado that devastated downtown Dawson Springs and then rushed toward Minton’s home in the small unincorporated community of Barnsley. On Sunday, an EF-3 tornado followed a nearly identical path across the county, this time touching down a mile north of Dawson Springs, tearing east toward Charleston then northeast toward Barnsley.
Minton’s house was destroyed again.
“Statistically, it’s like throwing a dartboard and hitting the same hole twice,” Minton said. “We’re trying to determine whether construction is safe or not. Because you hit two in a row, it’s pretty difficult to make that decision again.” Learn more here.
− Stephanie Kuzydym, Louisville Courier Journal
In Houston, “people are afraid”
Wind gusts of more than 70 mph were recorded in Dallas and Houston, and Dallas County officials issued a disaster declaration Tuesday, warning of “a multi-day power outage for a significant number” of inhabitants.
The latest storms that hit the state just days after Memorial Day weekend brought deadly severe weather to the region, killing nearly two dozen people. At least seven deaths have been reported in Texas, where the misery began two weeks ago when high winds and flooding swept through the Houston area, killing at least eight people and knocking out power to some area residents for more than a week.
“A lot of people are without power again,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county that includes Houston, said in a social media post. It was extremely devastating and many are still trying to recover. And so I know people are afraid.
In Forney, “people were caught off guard”
In Forney, Wichmann and his colleagues headed inland and took refuge in the operations center, surrounded by 911 dispatchers receiving a steady stream of calls. Rain and hail pelted the windows as the power went out and bright lightning lit the sky. A “bang” cut through the blast of thunder and sent rescuers searching for the source: a shattered bay door.
After about an hour, Wichmann and his partner left to survey the damage and respond to emergency calls. The roof of the building opposite was torn off. The streets were covered in mounds of debris and mangled tree branches. And cars were submerged in floodwaters.
Between calls, she watched live footage from her own home to check on her two dogs: a Dalmatian named Twix and her Great Dane, Bam Bam.
“I didn’t really have any damage to my house, so everything was fine, fortunately,” she said. “This is absolutely one of the worst storms I’ve seen in years. People were definitely caught off guard.”
Dallas disrupted by storm
In the Dallas area, power outages prompted election officials to extend polling hours for the state’s runoff elections. Northeast of Dallas, the First United Methodist Church in Royse City was destroyed in a fire that firefighters tentatively blamed on lightning caused by the storm.
Amanda Murski’s Range Rover was crushed in her daughter’s driveway in Dallas, buried by a giant tree uprooted by straight-line winds.
“It was amazing, the winds were crazy,” Murski told Fox4news.com. “It’s just a vehicle. Everything’s fine.”
More counties added to Texas disaster list
Federal emergency management officials agreed with the government. Greg Abbott’s request to add Collin, Cooke, Denton and Montague counties to the list of more than a dozen Texas counties already approved in the disaster declaration. The declaration allows FEMA to provide funds for temporary housing, emergency home repairs, property losses, disaster legal services, and medical and funeral expenses caused by the disaster.
Here’s Why Storm Season Seems So Busy
With at least 850 tornadoes confirmed so far and several major tornado outbreaks, 2024 ranks among the busiest years in history. Even some of the most experienced storm chasers have been stunned by the tornado activity so far this year. The United States has already experienced four days with at least 30 tornadoes rated EF-1 or higher, said Harold Brooks, senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma. The average is two per year.
Meteorologists interviewed by USA TODAY blame an active jet stream, associated with a series of powerful storms coming from the West Coast and crossing the center of the country. That’s been “a great recipe for lots of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes” in recent weeks, said meteorologist Peter Mullinax of the Weather Prediction Center. Learn more here.
− Elizabeth Weise, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Doyle Rice