By I. Hansana, Jadetimes News
Crews in Texas are working to restore power after storms caused widespread outages, downed trees, and debris, ahead of expected severe weather that could bring additional damaging winds and hail.
Following Tuesday's storms, which caused significant damage from Dallas to Houston, electricity has been restored to approximately 80% of the more than one million affected homes and businesses. The storms, which included strong winds that tore off roofs and uprooted trees, also resulted in one fatality when a house under construction collapsed.
Utility company Oncor reported that repair crews from eight states are working 16 hour shifts to address the outages. However, access to damaged areas is hampered by fallen trees and debris. Oncor anticipates that power will be restored to most customers in the Dallas area by Friday, though some outages may persist into the weekend.
The weather forecast predicts heavy rains, flash flooding, and severe weather continuing through Thursday and into Friday.
In response to the power outages, the Garland Independent School District in suburban Dallas has canceled classes for the rest of the year. The district cited the impracticality of continuing school operations under current conditions. However, graduation ceremonies for its eight high schools will proceed as scheduled.