Severe storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail hit Texas in the United States on Tuesday, leaving more than a million businesses and homes without power, as much of the United States recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes that killed at least 24 people in seven states over the Memorial Day weekend, UNN reports, citing CBS News.
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Voters in the state's runoff election discovered that some polling stations had no electricity. About 100 polling stations in Dallas County were cut off. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a disaster area and noted that some elderly people's homes were using generators. "Ultimately, this is going to be a power outage situation for several days," Jenkins said on Tuesday.
More severe weather and heavy rain was forecast for the Dallas area on Tuesday evening. Severe thunderstorms were also approaching Houston, where officials warned that high winds could cause damage less than two weeks after hurricane-force winds knocked out power to more than 800,000 homes and businesses.
In the Midwest, an unusual weather phenomenon called a "gustnado," similar to a small tornado, brought some dramatic moments to a lake in western Michigan last weekend.
Seven people, including two young children, were killed in Cooke County, Texas, by a tornado that tore through a mobile home park on Saturday, officials said, while seven people were killed in Arkansas.
Two people were killed in Mays County, Oklahoma, east of Tulsa, authorities said. Among the injured were guests at an outdoor wedding. A Missouri resident died on Sunday in Sikeston after a tree branch fell on his tent while he was camping.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said that five people in his state were killed in a hurricane that hit near where a devastating swarm of tornadoes killed 81 people in December 2021. One family lost their home for the second time in the same area where a tornado leveled their home less than three years ago.
An 18-year-old girl died in Clay County, North Carolina, after a large tree fell on her trailer. Authorities also confirmed one death in Nelson County, Virginia.
In addition to the Memorial Day weekend deaths in Magnolia, Texas, north of Houston, one person was killed on Tuesday when a house under construction collapsed during a hurricane, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said.
Approximately 150,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia and Missouri lost power on Tuesday.
It was a dark month of tornadoes and severe weather in the central part of the country.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week killed at least five people and injured dozens. Earlier this month, storms killed eight people in Houston.
Addendum
April was the second most tornado-prone month on record for the country. The end of May is the peak of tornado season, but recent storms have been exceptionally strong, producing very large tornadoes, said Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University.