Million power outages in Houston area after 100 mph derecho spotted from space

HOUSTON– The scars left after an intense derecho that hit the Houston area on May 16 are visible from space.

The line of thunderstorms ravaged the city that evening, blasting Houston and its suburbs with wind gusts estimated up to 100 mph.

WHAT IS A DERECHO?

Broken glass littered downtown streets as winds blew out dozens of windows of the city’s skyscrapers while trees, power lines and even 10 large electrical transmission pylons were toppled by the gusts.

About a million electric customers lost power in southeast Texas that evening, including about 800,000 in the Houston metro area, officials said.

The outages were noticeable from satellites more than 500 miles above the Earth’s surface. NASA’s Suomi-NPP polar-orbiting satellite took before and after photos of the nighttime lighting of the Houston metro area, showing how dark large swaths of the city were immediately after the storm.

HOUSTON SUBWAY SHOCKED BY 100 MPH DERECHO THAT LEFT 7 DEAD AND MORE THAN 1 MILLION WITHOUT POWER

Thousands of power generation crews were mobilized to help restore electricity and a large majority of outages were repaired. CenterPoint Energy’s current Houston-area outages page shows just over 1,600 customers still without power.