Thousands without power after the devastating Houston storm

The Houston area is trying to clean up and restore power to many people after dangerous storms. At least seven people have died. It’s also very hot and there is a warning about smog which could make people sick.

The weatherman from the US National Weather Service said that it will be very hot over the next few days, with temperatures reaching 32C and feeling even hotter, possibly up to 38C.

“We think the heat will get stronger gradually. ” Chenard said that the heat risk will go up from Tuesday to Friday.

The heat index tells us how hot it feels when you take into account both the temperature and the humidity.

“The Houston weather service warned not to work too hard during the cleanup. ”

On top of the hot weather, Houston might have bad air quality this weekend.

There could be a lot of rain in eastern Louisiana and central Alabama on Saturday, and some areas in Louisiana might flood.

The Houston Health Department will give out 400 free portable air conditioners to older people, people with disabilities and those who take care of disabled children to help them stay cool in the hot weather.

Five places where people can go to cool off were opened – four in Houston and one in Kingwood.
Hundreds of thousands of people still don’t have electricity.

The big storms on Thursday caused a lot of damage in Houston and made it hard for people to go about their normal business. Strong storms with lots of wind and rain made a big mess in the city. A brick building got badly damaged and there is a lot of broken trees, trash and glass on the streets. A tornado also landed near the northwest Houston area called Cypress.

By midday on Saturday, over half a million homes and businesses in Texas still didn’t have power, according to PowerOutage.us. In Louisiana, 21,000 more customers didn’t have electricity because of strong winds and a possible tornado.

CenterPoint Energy has sent 1,000 workers to the area and needs 5,000 more. They say it will take a few days or more to fix the power in some places. Customers should check if their homes can be safely connected again.

“Bad weather could have damaged CenterPoint Energy’s electric system and customer-owned equipment like the weatherhead, which brings power into homes. ”

Customers need to have a trained electrician fix the problem before we can turn the electricity back on, CenterPoint said.

Power companies are facing a big problem when transmission towers are broken and power lines are down. This is because it affects both the big power lines and the smaller ones that deliver power to homes and businesses. Alexandria von Meier, who knows a lot about energy, says this is not something that happens often. Von Meier said that it is more common for the distribution system to be damaged.

How fast the repairs are done will depend on a few things like how long it takes to check the damage, getting new equipment, road access problems, and workers available.