Houston area's 1 million power outages after 100 mph derecho spotted from space

Scott Sistek

May 25, 2024 at 11:24 a.m.·1 min read

HOUSTON — The scars left after an intense derecho blasted the Houston area on May 16 are visible from space.

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

WHAT IS A DERECHO?

Shattered glass littered downtown streets as the winds blew out dozens of windows from the city's skyscrapers while trees, power lines, and even 10 large electrical transmission towers were knocked over in the gusts.

About 1 million electrical customers lost power in southeastern Texas that evening -- about 800,000 of them in the Houston metro area, officials said.

The blackouts were noticeable from satellites over 500 miles above Earth's surface. NASA's Suomi-NPP polar-orbiting satellite snapped before and after photos of the Houston metro area lit up at night, showing just how dark wide swaths of the city were in the storm's immediate aftermath.

HOUSTON METRO ROCKED BY 100 MPH DERECHO THAT LEFT 7 DEAD AND OVER 1 MILLION WITHOUT POWER

Thousands of power crews were brought in to help restore electricity and a vast majority of outages have been repaired. CenterPoint Energy's current Houston-area outage page shows just over 1,600 customers still without power.

Original article source: Houston area's 1 million power outages after 100 mph derecho spotted from space

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