HOUSTON — The early damage assessments are in. Precinct 1 Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis says the rare derecho that struck the Houston area on May 16 caused $5-8 billion in damage.
A derecho is a widespread, damaging windstorm that can have winds as strong as 60 – 100 mph, even stronger in extreme cases.
Ellis says the event paralyzed the area so badly because folks there aren’t used to derechos, or even tornadoes.
“People couldn’t prepare because you don’t know it’s coming. People weren’t stocked with water, batteries or other essentials. It was just an incredible strain that it put on us,” the Commissioner told us on Inside Texas Politics. “You’re talking about 5:30 p.m. In 30 minutes it wreaked havoc on a major metropolitan area in America.”
At least eight people died.
Nearly a million customers lost power.
The strong winds easily toppled huge transmission line towers, power poles and trees.
CenterPoint Energy says up to 98% of power has been restored since then. But it took more than 5,000 workers from utilities across Texas and several other states. That’s in addition to a couple thousand CenterPoint employees.
Downtown Houston, the management organization for the area, says around 4,000 windows were damaged downtown, and windows could be boarded up for months.
Ellis says area leaders will have to start looking at stronger standards for buildings to prepare for unanticipated events like a derecho.
Those stronger building codes, he says, would help with hurricanes too.
And while the Houston area continues to clean up, they also have to prepare for hurricane season, which begins June 1.
Ellis says they’ll be ready… for what they know.
“We’re going to be ready for what we’ve seen in the past. What we cannot say we’re ready for is what has never happened before,” he said.