Houston windstorm causes preliminary economic loss of $5-7 billion: AccuWeather

The destructive windstorm that blew out windows in downtown Houston and left hundreds of thousands of southeast Texas residents without power caused between $5 billion and $7 billion in damage and economic losses in total, according to preliminary estimates from AccuWeather.

Thousands of businesses across the Houston metro are facing lasting impacts from damage to vehicles, equipment and property, AccuWeather said in a news release. Tens of thousands of homes and apartments may have been damaged in the region, the weather agency said.

The windstorm, which began on the evening of May 16 and lasted until noon on May 17, overturned cars on the highway, fell trees on homes and parked vehicles, and destroyed large transmission pylons and power lines. The storm left at least seven dead.

The National Weather Service reported straight-line winds of at least 80 mph in one direction. At least one tornado has been confirmed to have struck the Houston suburb of Cypress.

“This is an incredibly dangerous and destructive storm that impacted one of America’s largest cities and busiest travel hubs,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter. “Downtown Houston has not experienced such wind damage since Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Hurricane Alicia in 1983. This windstorm will go down in the history books as one of the most devastating storms in modern Houston history that was not caused by a hurricane. »

Porter compared the windstorm and resulting damage to the economic loss of a Category 1 hurricane hitting much of Florida.

“Although this windstorm was completely different meteorologically than a hurricane, residents in the Houston area may have felt like they had experienced a brief ‘mini-hurricane,’ as the damage resembles that which might be sustained by the wind impacts of a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale,” Porter said.

AccuWeather’s damage estimate includes both insured and uninsured losses and is based on a variety of unique sources, statistics and models that the Weather Information Service uses to estimate damages.

Photo: Blown out windows on a downtown high-rise building are shown following a severe thunderstorm Friday, May 17, 2024, in Houston. Thunderstorms slammed southeast Texas on Thursday, killing at least four people, blowing out windows of high-rise buildings and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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