The death toll from the storm which caused significant damage Thursday in Houston, the largest city in Texas, rose to seven deaths, local authorities announced Friday, May 17. An initial report established the day before showed four victims.
Among the three new deaths, an 85-year-old woman died after her mobile home was struck by lightning and completely destroyed by flames, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. A 60-year-old man was also found dead Friday after trying to fill his oxygen tank from his pickup truck’s battery amid widespread power outages. And a 57-year-old man collapsed after trying to move a power pole downed by the storm.
“We had significant damage to downtown office buildings losing windows. (…) More than 800,000 families are without electricity,” Mayor John Whitmire declared Thursday, describing this storm as “exceptional.” Schools in this city of 2.4 million inhabitants, the fourth largest in the United States, are closed on Friday.
Images broadcast by local television channels and on social networks show how, under the power of the wind gusts, which reached up to 160 km/h, trees and electricity poles fell and windows of buildings were shattered.
