DALLAS — The intersection of Alpha Road and Hillcrest Road, with traffic lights out and three telephone poles splintered and thrown to the ground in Sunday's storms, is one of the 41% of Dallas signaled intersections affected.
The City of Dallas reports that 496 traffic signals have no communication, were damaged, or were otherwise inoperable and 168 more are flashing red and due to be reset.
Farther north, Rose Harp has more important problems. Not only does she not have power to her home in Northwood Hills, but she also doesn't have a section of her second floor. Her office in the home she's shared with her husband for more than 40 years was sheered off by a falling oak tree on Sunday, leaving only the floor, two interior walls and the doorway to her upstairs hallway.
"You know I felt like it was our turn," the 81-year-old said. "We've had so many storms. And within five minutes, we were in the worst storm I've ever experienced in 81 years."
But as she searched the office, with two exterior walls missing and offering an unobstructed view of traffic passing on the street below, she decided to stop looking for belongings to save.
"All this is just stuff," she said. "And it is. Even though it's been our home for many many years. It's still just stuff. And you gotta make the best of it."
Northwood Hills and Prestonwood are among the neighborhoods trying to make the best of it. Trees are down on cars, on homes and in streets. And hundreds in this neighborhood alone are also waiting for electricity to return.
"I think we did pretty good," said Brenda Rolfe as she and her daughter Lili watched work crews remove two trees that fell on opposite ends of their roof on Maplecrest Drive. "The house really did pretty well, we think. As soon as we get the branches down we'll know better."
The difficulty for Oncor getting the lights back on is that this damage is throughout Dallas County.
"That's how widespread this damage is," Oncor's Jen Myers said. Immediately after the storm there were more than 300,000 Oncor customers without power. "And that's why it's going to take us a bit longer to get the power back on this time. We're just asking for patience."
The severity and high winds of this storm has caused significant damage and high power outages. Our crews are on the ground now and will be working around the clock to assess damage and restore power as quickly and safely as possible," said Keith Hull, Oncor Vice President of Distribution Operations.
Oncor has also requested assistance from utility partners across Texas and from neighboring states to help with repairs.