After two severe storms this week knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of North Texas residents, the region’s largest electric utility said some customers may not get power back until the weekend.
Blistering winds and a deluge of rain swept through the area Tuesday, downing power lines and leaving more than half a million Oncor customers without electricity at their peak. A second wave of storms Thursday evening slowed repair efforts and knocked down other lines and newly repaired lines.
Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news release Friday afternoon that he added five counties, including Dallas and Rockwall counties, to the state’s disaster declaration. Such a declaration is a step toward unlocking aid for impacted residents from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The city of Dallas and Dallas ISD are sponsoring a multi-agency resource center at Truett Elementary, 1810 Inadale Ave., to provide recovery services to residents impacted by Tuesday’s storms. The center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Crews working to repair downed power lines made steady progress throughout the day Friday. Grant Cruise, a spokesperson for Oncor, said about 36,000 of the remaining outages system-wide stemmed from the Tuesday storms, while about 50,000 were from the second wave.
By late Friday afternoon, about 70,000 customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were without power. More than two-thirds of the customers impacted — about 57,000 — were in Dallas County, according to Oncor’s outage map.
Repairs associated with Tuesday’s outages were mostly on track to be completed Friday evening or Saturday morning. Those who lost power during Thursday storms may not see it return until later in the weekend, Cruise said.
“Most of the forecasts are showing the worst storms are behind us,” Cruise said. “We’re focused on keeping folks safe and getting to the finish line on this.”
The outage map showed roughly 6,200 customers without power in Collin County, 3,400 in Tarrant County, 1,300 in Denton County, and 1,800 in Rockwall County Friday afternoon.
The National Weather Service in Fort Worth forecasts severe storms over the weekend and early next week for North and Central Texas. Some storms may bring large hail and damaging winds.
Oncor officials have said the company called for help from out of state along with its own vegetation management team to remove trees from power lines that fell during the storms.
In an updated city news release Thursday, city officials said they are coordinating with Oncor to identify the “multi-family and senior living properties that remain without power and asking that they prioritize them.”
In addition to Dallas and Rockwall counties, Abbott added Fannin, Hockley and Lynn counties to the state’s disaster declaration. Additional counties may be added as damage assessments are completed in affected communities, according to the news release.
Those impacted are advised to complete the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s iSTAT damage survey. Responses to the survey will go toward determining whether counties are eligible for additional financial assistance, according to the news release.
Dallas officials have said they expect cleanup of fallen trees and other debris to take at least a month.
The series of storms come just days after a tornado tore through the Denton-Cooke County line, killing seven people and injuring more than 100 around the city of Valley View.
