Texas Power Outage Map Shows Thousands Impacted

A screenshot from PowerOutage.us shows where the most power outages in Texas are concentrated.

Thousands of people in east-central Texas were without power on Thursday as more severe weather slammed the storm-weary region.

Texas has been struck by a wave of severe weather, including a deluge of rain that prompted a surge of flood warnings. In Houston, the city received up to 6 inches of rain in the first week of May, more than an inch above the area's average rainfall for the month.

Reports from the National Weather Service (NWS) on Thursday showed that more damage was expected from another slew of storms hitting the region. The severe thunderstorm was expected to hit Coryell and Bell counties late Thursday morning, with meteorologists warning of hail and wind damage. Winds were expected to gust up to 60 miles per hour, and quarter-sized hail was forecast as well.

Just before noon, more than 46,000 people in Bell County were without power, according to a report by PowerOutage.us that included a map of the affected areas. Nearly 2,000 people in Coryell also were without power.

NWS meteorologist Tom Bradshaw told Newsweek that most of the outages were likely from a tornado that touched down in the region on Wednesday. An NWS survey crew is currently assessing damage in the area.

Bradshaw said the approaching thunderstorm—which is supposed to hit before 12:30 p.m. local time—has yet to impact the area so it likely didn't cause the outages.

Meanwhile, excessive rainfall in northeast and northcentral Texas was expected to impact the region through Thursday night, the NWS said. Counties affected by the torrential rain included Bell, Bosque, Collin, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Freestone, Grayson, Hamilton, Hill, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Lampasas, Limestone, McLennan, Mills, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, Wise, Anderson, Delta, Henderson, Hopkins, Lamar, Rains and Van Zandt.

"Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations," the NWS Flood Watch said. "Flooding may occur in poor-drainage and urban areas. Low-water crossings may become flooded."

However, in southern Texas, power outages were very limited, signaling that the Texas power grid was managing to meet the demand wrought by high temperatures reaching triple digits. A heat advisory was issued for much of southern Texas, with the NWS HeatRisk index warning that extreme impacts were expected from the heat.

"This level of rare and/or long-duration extreme heat with little to no overnight relief affects anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration. Impacts likely in most health systems, heat-sensitive industries and infrastructure," NWS HeatRisk said of the extreme impacts.

The abnormally high temperatures had prompted concern from some residents earlier this month, who worried the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power grid would fail to meet excessive demand due to the weather, but the grid continues to perform strongly. ERCOT forecasts for Thursday predicted that no power outages are expected from grid failure.

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