The Memorial Day weekend in Texas and the Midwest was marked by severe storms that brought damaging winds and baseball-sized hail, leaving a trail of destruction and chaos in their wake. The storms, which began on Saturday, caused widespread power outages, flooding, and property damage, with over 800,000 homes and businesses affected in Texas alone.
One person was killed in the Houston suburb of Magnolia after three homes under construction collapsed, and several others were injured. In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County after severe storms struck the area. In Missouri, a man died on Sunday after a tree limb fell on his tent while he was camping.
The storms were part of a larger pattern of severe weather that has affected the country in recent weeks. The National Weather Service reported that several cities in Florida broke heat records over the weekend, with West Palm Beach reaching a daily record high of 97F. Miami and Fort Lauderdale also saw record-breaking temperatures, with parts of Texas experiencing triple-digit temperatures and heat indexes reaching as high as 120F.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, declared a disaster declaration on Sunday to aid affected residents, and more than 100 people were injured amid the severe storms. The Texas power grid was particularly hard hit, with over 800,000 people without power as of Tuesday morning.
The storms were particularly destructive in Texas, with many communities affected. In Dallas County, over 300,000 customers were without power, and dozens of polling places were forced to close due to outages. The Dallas County Elections Department announced that it would keep polls open for an extra two hours on Tuesday to accommodate the disruption.
Texas StormsThe storms were also accompanied by reports of tornadoes, with at least seven people killed in northern Texas on Saturday. The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, reported five deaths in his state due to the storms, and Missouri authorities said a man died on Sunday after a tree limb fell on his tent.
As the country continues to recover from the storms, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator, Deanne Criswell, announced plans to travel to Arkansas on Wednesday to assess the damage. The Biden administration is also working to provide aid to affected residents, with FEMA officials on the ground in Texas and other affected areas.
Professor Victor Gensini, a meteorology expert at Northern Illinois University, said that the recent storms have been exceptionally violent, producing very strong tornadoes. “Over the weekend, we’ve had a lot of hot and humid air, a lot of gasoline, a lot of fuel for these storms. And we’ve had a really strong jet stream as well,” he said. “That jet stream has been aiding in providing the wind shear necessary for these types of tornadoes.”
As the midwest and southern states continue to recover from the storms, experts are urging residents to take precautions to protect themselves from the extreme heat and severe weather. The climate crisis is also contributing to the severity of storms around the world, with the storms in the Midwest and South serving as a stark reminder of the importance of taking steps to mitigate its effects.