Severe weather caused power outages in Dallas County Tuesday morning and the outages are likely to continue for several days as more storms approach the area, officials said.
County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins signed a disaster declaration after more than 322,000 residents lost power. Oncor reported that more than 600,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday morning, including in Dallas and Tarrant counties.
“this is [power] “We’re not having the generation problems that we sometimes have when it’s cold or when it’s hot in the summer,” Lewis Jenkins said at a news conference at the Dallas County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. “This is a broken-line problem brought on by straight-line winds.”
More than 190,000 Dallas residents were without power as of 9 p.m., according to the city’s transportation department, which reported 316 traffic lights were out of order and 122 were flashing.
Lewis Jenkins said crews responding to outages will face several challenges ahead, especially with the storm expected to bring more rain and wind to the area.
“Straight-line winds are common in North Texas, so the damage itself is not unusual, but the extent of the damage and the number of customers affected is unusual,” he said. “I’ve been in this business for 14 years and I can’t remember a multi-day event like this.”
He said power restoration efforts will prioritize critical infrastructure like hospitals and nursing homes that may be running on generators. County officials are also working with cities to open public cooling spaces at recreation centers. All water treatment plants are still operational, so the county’s drinking water is safe.
Lewis-Jenkins added that the power outage on Tuesday doesn’t mean the outage will last for several days, but that’s a possibility.
Oncor spokesman Grant Crews said Tuesday morning’s storm produced baseball-sized hail, winds of more than 80 mph and a “significant amount” of cloud-to-ground damage, but power line crews were deployed to respond to the outages and were immediately mobilized to critical facilities.
He said teams were still in the area as of Tuesday afternoon to assess the isolated outages.
“This weather event has caused quite a few power lines to go down,” Cruz said, “and in many cases, it won’t be just a simple repair. We’re looking at complete rebuilds in parts of our area.”
Cruz said Oncor will be “requesting assistance as soon as possible” from other utility companies in Texas and beyond.
He said crews would be working around the clock to restore power to residents as weather conditions permitted.
Officials said they understand the situation is frustrating but asked residents to be patient.
They also urged people to avoid driving in particularly affected areas, to contact family and friends who may need help if they lose power, and to stay home if it is safe to do so.
