Four people died Thursday in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States, during an “exceptional storm” that caused significant property damage, massive power outages and falling trees, announced the mayor.
• Read also: Storms and tornadoes in the United States, three dead
• Read also: Extreme weather in the United States: California freezes while Texas burns
“Unfortunately, we have four deaths,” John Whitmire, the mayor of this Texas city, said in an interview with local television channel Fox 26.
Although the circumstances of these deaths are not yet known, they could be “mainly attributable to falling trees or people trapped in their cars,” Mr. Whitmire said.
“We had significant damage to downtown office buildings, which lost their windows. (…) More than 800,000 families are without electricity,” he added, describing this storm as “exceptional”.
Schools in this city of 2.4 million inhabitants will be closed on Friday.
Images broadcast by local television channels and on social networks show how, under the power of gusts which reached up to 160 km/h, trees and electricity poles fell and windows of buildings flew into splinters.
