The National Weather Service continued to issue tornado warnings extending past midnight in North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky.
At least seven people died after heavy rains, winds and even a tornado that hit the southern United States on Thursday, leaving severe damage in the city of Houston, in Texas, according to a new report from the authorities. Ed González, Harris County Sheriff, reported this Friday three new victims, in addition to four reported the day before, after the storm that reached winds of 160 km per hour.
He National Weather Service confirmed, besides, The passage of a tornado near the community of Cypress, neighbor to Houston.
The tornado in the southern United States
In a publication on his social networks, González detailed that a 57-year-old man lost his life trying to move a power pole that had fallen with the storm. An 85-year-old woman died after apparently lightning struck her residence and a fire broke out. A third victim, a 60-year-old man died after leaving home to try to run his oxygen tankapparently electric, with the power from his truck, since his house had lost electricity.
He Houston Mayor John Whitmire had reported on Thursday the death of four people, due to what it described as a “exceptional storm.” This Friday, the stage in the center of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States with more than 2.3 million inhabitants, was one of devastation. Large buildings had lost their windows and pieces of glass were scattered along the main streets. Workers worked on cleaning.
The tornado that destroyed homes and buildings in the southern United States
“It was rush hour when it happened and there were many people in the streets. And I was in a meeting and when we left there were trees overturned (…). It looked like a bomb had gone off,” Jacqueline Muncy, a 38-year-old woman in downtown Houston, told AFP.
Blake Johnson, 33, an oil industry employee, said one of the trees in her yard snapped in half and others were uprooted. “I’ve lived in Houston my whole life. I’ve never seen winds like this downtown,” she said.
In some parts of harris county, Trees fell on cars and even high voltage pylons succumbed to the winds, initially leaving a million homes without power. Until this Friday afternoon, some 650,000 families still did not have the serviceas detailed by the county judge, Lina Hidalgo.
Source: Ambito
