Thursday’s advisory warned the heat index could reach 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42.8 degrees Celsius). In Harris County, which includes Houston, almost two dozen cooling centers were opened as nearly 90,000 customers remained without power. Those areas have fewer than 2,000 people combined.Ī cooling center was opened in Matador with highs expected near 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Power outages were widespread across the sparsely populated west Texas region, with over 900 customers losing power in the Matador and Jayton areas, according to. “You would look on one side where we had a general merchandise store completely flattened to the ground, but across the street there’s a house that’s still standing and the vehicles haven’t even moved from the driveway,” Delgado said by telephone. A restaurant’s walls were all knocked down, but the booths remained standing in what was called a “jaw-dropping” scene by Derek Delgado, a spokesperson for Lubbock Fire Rescue.
Homes were damaged, buildings were flattened and power lines were snapped in half. The worst damage appeared to be in Matador - a town of about 570 people about 70 miles (112 kilometers) northeast of Lubbock in Motley County. Wednesday “was definitely a rare combination of high-end wind shear and storms of extreme instability,” Ziebell said. The weather service sent crews to survey the damage in west Texas on Thursday and determine the strength of the tornadoes, but the team had not reported its findings as of early Thursday afternoon, according to meteorologist Robert Barritt in Lubbock. Much of the wind damage near Houston - downed trees and knocked down power lines and fences - happened north of the city. The previous record there was 82 mph (132 kph) during Hurricane Ike in 2008. The weather service reported a 97 mph (156 kph) wind gust - the strongest recorded at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston since data collection began there in 1969. The storm produced 109 mph (175 kph) winds in Jayton, as well as hail more than 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) wide, Ziebell said.
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