Houston area struggles with heat, power outages after major storms | United States and world

(Reuters) – Thousands of people in the Houston area faced sweltering heat without power on Saturday following severe storms that claimed at least seven lives, according to local media and the National Weather Service.

The NWS predicted temperatures around 90 degrees (32.2 C) and warned residents in a post on social media platform X about the threat of heatstroke, saying: ” Don’t overdo it” as they continued to clean up after Thursday night’s storms.

Storms with winds of up to 100 mph ravaged the region, damaging homes and buildings, downing power lines and leaving more than 800,000 people without power, according to local media.

A tornado touched down near the suburb of Cypress, breaking trees and windows and spreading debris, local media reported.

As of Saturday morning, more than 500,000 people in the region were still without power, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that aggregates data on utility power outages across the United States.

President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for seven Texas counties on Friday, making residents and businesses eligible for federal aid.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; editing by Daniel Wallis)