HOUSTON – The severe storms that slammed into Houston Thursday afternoon and evening killed four people, blew windows out of downtown high rises, caused widespread damage and shut power off to nearly 900,000 customers.
Mayor John Whitmire confirmed four people were killed and asked Houstonians to stay home tonight and “if you’re not an essential worker, don’t go to work tomorrow.” The mayor said the city is reaching out to the private sector and asking companies to let people stay home from work Friday so they can be off the streets and be home with their kids.
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During a press conference with Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, officials said they are investigating a possible 5th fatality.
HISD canceled classes on all campuses Friday due to damage.
LATEST UPDATE: School closings
“We had a storm with 100-mile-per-hour winds, the equivalent of Hurricane Ike,” Whitmire said, explaining how the storm went up 290, through The Heights and the city’s central business district.
RELATED: Powerlines toppled at US 290 near IH-610 after severe storm blows through
The biggest threat right now, he said, is traffic control. Most of the traffic lights across the city are down.
“We’re in recovery mode,” Whitmire said, adding it would take 24 hours to get things cleared and running in some areas, 48 hours in others.
Firefighters were taking live wires off highways, the mayor said, urging people to stay away from downtown because of the glass and debris.
“It’s all hands on deck tonight,” Whitmire said. “Downtown is a mess,” he said, “stay at home tonight, stay at home tomorrow.”
The number of outages overwhelmed CenterPoint Energy, which warned customers their outage updates “as well as our ability to provide estimated restoration times may be delayed or unavailable,” asking for patience.
RELATED: Close to 900,000 power outages reported across Harris County
The storm halted the Astros game and forced ground strops at both airports.
An army of tow truck drivers was out pulling cars off streets where drivers were no match for flash flooding.
At Postino’s restaurant on Post Oak, patrons abandoned happy hour and crowded into the kitchen, away from large windows as the dark clouds and rocketing rain moved through. A chorus of Emergency Alerts went off multiple times on phones warning people to take shelter immediately with Tornado Warnings extended at least three times.
DOWNTOWN DAMAGE
MORE PICTURES & DETAILS: DOWNTOWN DAMAGE
Damage reports coming out of Houston’s downtown area include roof damage to the Hyatt Regency, with rain and debris pouring into the lobby.
This is the Conejo Malo Club on Travis Street:
In the Cypress near Towne Lake, what looks like a funnel cloud or possible tornado, but we won’t know until the National Weather Service assesses, most likely on Friday.
VIDEO appears to show funnel cloud in Cypress area