Severe Memorial Day storms knock out power to more than 100,000 in Texas
More than 100,000 customers in Texas were without power on Tuesday morning after severe storms pummelled the area.
Earlier Tuesday morning, it was closer to 130,000 customers who did not have power, but the outages have been clearing up throughout the morning, according to PowerOutage.us, a platform that tracks national power outages.
Heavy rain, hail and violent winds over Memorial Day weekend are behind the widespread power outages across the state, particularly in the greater Houston area and nearby counties. PowerOutage.us reports that over 71,000 CenterPoint Energy clients and more than 23,000 Entergy clients were without power as of 10:30 a.m. ET.
Thunderstorms are expected to continue hitting areas throughout southeastern Texas into Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, as severe weather from the holiday weekend continues to move eastward.
The National Weather Service reports that the Storm Prediction Center has issued a Slight Risk level of two out of five for the thunderstorms throughout Texas that will continue into Thursday morning, with frequent lightning, severe wind, hail and potentially a few tornadoes.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated state emergency response resources on Monday, telling residents the state was 'ready to deploy all necessary resources to support Texans as severe thunderstorms move across our state.'
'Texans are urged to remain weather-aware, regularly checking road conditions and heed the guidance of state and local officials to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones,' Abbott wrote in a news release.
Some Texas residents have captured significant elements from the thunderstorms: An X user in north-central Texas took photos of hail larger than the size of a softball, and in Austin, someone filmed a video of the intense lightning strikes during a storm Monday night.
The Weather Prediction Center has placed southeastern New Mexico, parts of southwestern Texas and areas across Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia on a level two out of five risk for severe thunderstorms through Wednesday. The center also warned some areas in Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia could experience flooding from the storms.
The NWS advises residents to be ready to shelter indoors before storms hit and set up multiple ways to receive as many weather warnings as possible.
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