The death toll from the storm which caused significant damage Thursday in Houston, the largest city in Texas, rose to seven deaths, local authorities announced Friday, May 17. An initial report established the day before showed four victims.
Among the three new deaths noted, an 85-year-old woman died after her mobile home was struck by lightning and completely destroyed by flames, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
A 60-year-old man was also found dead on Friday after trying to fill his oxygen tank with the battery of his pickup truck, due to widespread power outages. And a 57-year-old man collapsed after trying to move a power pole downed by the storm.
Winds up to 160 km/h
“We suffered significant damage to office buildings downtown, which lost their windows. (…) More than 800,000 families are without electricity »declared Thursday the mayor, John Whitmire, describing this storm as“exceptional”. Schools in this city of 2.4 million inhabitants, the fourth largest in the United States, were closed on Friday.
Images broadcast by local television channels and on social networks show how, under the power of the wind gusts, which reached up to 160 km/h, trees and electrical poles fell and windows of buildings were shattered.