A weekend storm system brought severe thunderstorms, high winds, and flooding to southeastern Texas, leaving more than 260,000 customers without power as of early Saturday morning. The Houston area alone accounted for over 150,000 outages, according to PowerOutage.com.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported wind gusts of 59 mph in Downtown Houston and 64 mph in Hempstead, while heavy rain and frequent lightning swept across the region.
Earlier Friday night, storms battered the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, producing wind gusts up to 67 mph in Fort Worth. Initial radar reports suggested a possible tornado south of Fort Worth, but the NWS survey concluded that straight-line winds up to 85 mph, not a tornado, caused the observed damage. The storms snapped tree branches, downed powerlines, knocked over light poles, and partially damaged roofs…