Deadly storms slam Houston yet again; hundreds of thousands without power across Texas

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 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. 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. 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.