Heat and humidity will stay locked in place across Texas this week as hundreds of thousands of people remain without power after last week’s destructive derecho.
HOUSTON – Hundreds of thousands remain without power in Texas after last week’s devastating derecho as the heat and humidity intensify across the region.
The death toll from the storms has increased to at least eight. Restoration work quickly began to bring power back to the more than one million affected customers. As of Tuesday morning, more than 145,000 customers remained in the dark around Houston, according to PowerOutage.us.
According to Harris County Executive Judge Lina Hidalgo, it could be weeks before some people’s power is restored, as 10 energy transmission lines are down.
SEE IT: DEADLY STORM WALLOPS HOUSTON AS FEROCIOUS WINDS LEAVE DESTRUCTIVE PATH ACROSS SOUTH
(FOX Weather)
“A heat alert is out for South Texas. This is where we do have power, which is great. We can work with air conditioning,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin said. “The problem down here is that it’s early onset, which is also a similar problem for Houston, where we are struggling with power.”
(FOX Weather)
The triple-digit feels-like temperatures now pose a growing risk for those without air conditioning. This comes after one of last week’s storm victims died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Some people have been using generators to stay cool and run their AC.
CenterPoint Energy spokeswoman Alyssia Oshodi told FOX Weather that crews are working around the clock to restore power to their customers, which peaked at more than 922,000 after the storms passed.
“We saw significant damage from these storms. What is taking a significant amount of time is the amount of vegetation,” Oshodi said. “A lot of the harder-hit areas of our service territory we are coming across where not just tree limbs but entire trees have come down on top of our lines, taking down poles.”
Oshodi thinks crews will be “substantially complete” by Wednesday evening.
HOUSTON METRO ROCKED BY 100 MPH DERECHO THAT LEFT 8 DEAD AND OVER 1 MILLION WITHOUT POWER
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Workers clean up debris downtown on Monday, May 20, 2024 in Houston. The city closed off streets in a six-block exclusion zone downtown, from McKinney to Polk and from Smith to Travis, as workers continued to clean up broken glass from downtown streets and windows. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
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People walk through a Bridgeland neighborhood as families begin cleaning up storm damage, Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Cypress, Texas. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images) (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
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A Houston police officer walks back to his vehicle after clearing people away from a damaged tire shop at the intersection of Sowden and Bingle in the aftermath of a severe storm on Friday, May 17, 2024, in Houston. The widespread destruction brought much of Houston to a standstill as crews raced to restore power and remove uprooted trees and debris. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
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Downed transmission power lines are shown near Grand Parkway and West Rd. after a storm Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Cypress. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle)
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A car is visible under a fallen tree in downtown Houston on Prairie near Travis after severe storms moved through the area Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle)
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A large tree is seen after it fell on a home after heavy winds and rains ripped through the region, Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Houston. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
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A boy walks past a large tree that fell on a home after heavy wind and rain ripped through the region Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Houston. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
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A large tree has fallen onto a car and part of a home after heavy winds and rains ripped through the region Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Houston. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
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Rain blows in from the windows as a severe thunderstorm hit before a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Houston. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle)
The Houston area is forecast to see temperatures in the 90s, with heat indices around 100 degrees. Even though it’ll be hot, Houston will at least miss out on the worst heat, which will impact much of West and South Texas.
(FOX Weather)
Days of triple-digit heat are in store across the Rio Grande Valley, with some locations potentially topping 110 degrees. This should break a few daily records for high temperatures in cities like Laredo, McAllen and Del Rio.
(FOX Weather)
To make matters worse, moisture looks to be present, allowing temperatures to feel worse than they actually are. Closer to the Mexico border, areas should easily surpass a heat index of 110 and possibly close to 115-117 by midweek.
This has allowed for an “extreme” heat risk to be issued for this region starting Wednesday and going through the weekend. This also means there will likely be little to no overnight relief from the heat, and it will last for a longer duration than what is normally seen.
(FOX Weather)
The worst heat will escape San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi and other big Texas cities, but even there, it will feel like summer.