|
Much of downtown Houston and its commercial district were
littered with fallen power lines and glass from shattered
windows following the storm, with traffic and street lights
knocked out across the city, the mayor, John Whitmire said in an
interview on local television station KRIV.
Speaking from the city's emergency operations center, Whitmire
said the thunderstorm raked the Gulf Coast city in southeast
Texas, the state's most populous urban center, with winds
howling at 80-100 miles per hour (129-161 kph).
He urged members of the public to stay indoors and to especially
avoid the heavily hit downtown area, which he said was left
darkened and strewn with broken glass.
"The message right now is to stay home," he said, adding that
public schools would be closed on Friday and that local
authorities were asking all non-essential workers to likewise
take the day off.
The mayor said at least four storm-related fatalities had been
confirmed, mostly from fallen trees. "Over 800,000 families are
without power right now," he added.
Whitmire delivered similar initial storm assessments during a
brief televised news conference carried live a short time after
his interview.
The mayor said the severe weather had caught many residents by
surprise, recounting that he was attending a little league
baseball game when the storm hit, "and we had very little time
to get to cover."
The National Weather Service also issued a flood watch for the
Houston area from heavy rains associated with the storm.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sonali
Paul)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
