More than 48 hours after a powerful storm ripped through North Texas, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers, forecasters said late Thursday morning that strong thunderstorms were expected to affect southeastern Denton County, southwestern Collin County and northwestern Dallas County in the afternoon.
Shortly after noon, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth also issued a flood warning for central Collin County and northern Dallas County until 2 p.m. Forecasters expect flooding of streams, rivers, cities and roads. Residents should prepare for flooding in low-lying areas and areas with poor drainage.
Forecasters said just before noon that wind speeds could exceed 30 mph in some areas and that dime-sized hail was possible.
About 150,000 customers were still without power late Thursday morning due to the rain, storms and resulting flooding, according to Oncor, North Texas’ largest power company.
More than 230,000 customers were without power on Wednesday, and Oncor said at the time that full power restoration could take until Friday or Saturday.
“The smaller the number, [of outages] “When conditions worsen, downed trees and debris can make it difficult to access equipment and make operations more difficult, so we’re working through that issue right now,” Oncor spokesman Grant Cruz said.
Crews from neighboring states and as far away as Virginia, South Carolina and Florida were deployed to help remove downed power lines, Cruz said, adding that much of the effort was focused on clearing trees and debris.
Some Dallas residents say this week’s power outages feel as bad, or even worse, than those during the 2021 freeze.
Cruz said it’s difficult to compare the two events because they are “completely different scenarios.” While the 2021 freeze was a generation issue and supply crisis, this week’s massive storm passed through a large swath of Oncor’s service territory, causing downed trees and damaging and impacting equipment, Cruz said.
Why did the power go out again?
Despite the progress, there appeared to be some snags: Some residents in Dallas’ Lakewood and Hollywood-Santa Monica neighborhoods, where power was restored on Wednesday, were without power again Thursday morning.
Cruz said there are several reasons why customers may experience outages again after power is restored: Live power lines may need to be cut so emergency crews can reach certain areas safely, or rain may soften the ground, causing new trees to fall and damaging power lines again.
“In those situations, you may end up damaging the equipment you just repaired, and you may have to go back and redo the repair or redo the rebuild,” he said.
Oncor has its own vegetation management team that clears trees from power lines and infrastructure. Crews said that typically the team would move the debris and put it through a grinder, but given the severity of recent storms, they may just be moving the debris out of harm’s way and then have to come back later to dispose of it.
“Access to our equipment has become a major issue with this storm,” Cruz said. “Rather than worrying about aesthetics, creating an accessible path for restoration crews and the public is our top priority.”
The city of Garland said in a news release Wednesday night that Garland Power & Light has restored power to more than 80% of affected customers, but about 5,800 GP&L customers and more than 2,500 Oncor customers in Garland are still without power.
Oncor said 80 mph winds, golf ball-sized hail and rain caused more than 650,000 outages at its peak on Tuesday, and crews were able to restore power to more than 340,000 customers within 24 hours.
Oncor said it expected power restoration to be “substantially complete” by Friday evening, with “highly affected” areas expected to be restored on Saturday.
Cruz said that was still the goal as of Thursday morning.
“We’re cautiously optimistic about how much progress we’ve made to be able to continue this work, but at the same time, we see that there’s now an additional storm on the horizon that we’ll have to deal with,” Cruz said.
Garland may be the hardest hit area
Based on a preliminary submission of the Individual Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT) damage assessment, the city of Garland said in a news release:
The city of Garland was the hardest hit by the storm: within 36 hours, over 700 reports of damage to public and private properties in Garland were filed, with 48 of those reporting major damage.
Texans can continue to report at damage.tdem.texas.gov .
Why are fallen trees still on the road?
Storm cleanup will also take some time. The city plans to send dozens of crews overnight, Wednesday and Thursday, to cut down large trees blocking roads and alleys and move them to the curb, said Travis Houston, Dallas’ emergency management director. He said that of the more than 1,600 calls for service made to the city’s 311 non-emergency number as of Wednesday afternoon, about 1,000 had been handled.
4-seater, 1 crew member Dallas Morning News The photographer, spotted earlier this week, was using just one chainsaw to cut down a large tree that was blocking his path, but the chainsaw got stuck. It took him five minutes to free it, and then he had to fix the broken chain.
The city said Wednesday it could take a month to remove trees and debris that has fallen into alleys and on curbs.
Dallas Sanitation Commissioner Cliff Gillespie said crews for leaf and bulky waste collection may make multiple visits to hard-hit neighborhoods to pick up storm debris that has piled up on roadside curbs. Crews will remove up to 20 cubic yards of trash for free, but residents will be charged $60 for each additional load of debris they haul away, he said.
One cubic yard is roughly equivalent to a container that is 3 feet wide, 3 feet long, and 3 feet high.
“If you experience more than that amount of damage, we strongly encourage you to consider other options,” Gillespie said during a Wednesday press conference about Dallas’ storm recovery efforts. “There are private companies and waste haulers in the city that will handle storm debris, many of which will be able to get to you faster than the city can and remove the debris at a lower cost.”
The City of Irving said in an email that collection of debris from the storm will take several weeks. The city said its Solid Waste Services department is working overtime, but that the amount of debris in the city may delay regular collection days.
Irving also opened cooling centers in the city’s recreation centers and libraries.
Garland Independent School District ends school year early
The Garland Independent School District announced Wednesday afternoon that school will be closed for all students through Thursday and the end of the school year.
GISD announced in a May 29 Facebook post that the decision was made after assessing recent power outages and damage to buildings across the district.
“Due to recent weather challenges, it is not practical to continue instruction on campus,” the release stated. “While many families were fortunate to avoid power outages and home damage caused by the storm, much of the GISD community continues to be affected.”
High school graduation ceremonies will go on as scheduled, but awards and graduation ceremonies for students in kindergarten through 11th grade will no longer be held.
Staff writers Everton Bailey Jr., Sophia Barnett and Jamie Landers and staff photographer Elias Valverde II contributed to this report.
Fix: A cubic yard is 3 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 3 feet high. An earlier version of this article listed the dimensions of 20 cubic yards, the amount the city will pick up for free.
