350 000 customers without power, 1 person killed as powerful storm hits Texas

As many as 350 000 Oncor Energy customers across Dallas County lost power as a powerful storm swept through parts of Texas on June 9, 2019. 146 000 are still without power as of 07:00 UTC, June 11. One person was killed and 5 injured.

Oncor spokesperson said this will be a multi-day outage as their efforts to restore power have been impacted by fallen trees and in some areas, both power lines and distribution equipment needs to be rebuilt.

"This storm was really unique because we saw damage akin to something we’d see with a tropical storm or a tornado. But instead of a small area, we’re seeing a very large portion of Dallas County with major damage," Oncor spokesperson and meteorologist Jen Myers said.

"Most of the damaged infrastructure we have isn’t because the wind blew over our infrastructure, it’s because the wind blew something into our infrastructure," Myers said. "We’re talking entire trees, large tree limbs. If you’ve driven around Dallas, you know what's out there and what’s on the ground. Before it hit the ground, it hit some of our infrastructure."

Dallas city officials said 41 percent of traffic signals (496 signals) are without power, were damaged or are inoperable, urging drivers to use extra caution at intersections. There are another 168 signals that are flashing red and need to be reset.

One person was killed in downtown Dallas after wind gusts up to 112  km/h (70 mph) caused a giant construction crane to collapse on an apartment building. Five people were injured, of which 2 are in critical condition and 2 in serious.

More than 500 flights in and out of Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport were canceled and more than 740 delayed.

Featured image credit: ryanloewe (@ryanloewe)