Conejo Malo Htx was damaged by storms Thursday, May 17, 2024, in downtown Houston (Chen Chen/Xinhua via Getty Images).
Houston — Thursday’s storm brought a tornado and devastating winds that caused billions of dollars worth of damage to the Houston area. While emergency crews jumped in immediately to reverse the effects of the storm, it’s expected to take months at least to repair the damage. Here’s a look at some of what was impacted.
Downtown Houston was hit especially hard by winds due to a derecho, blowing out windows on high rises and littering the streets with all sorts of debris.
A derecho is a wide-spread storm associated with a rapid-moving line of thunderstorms, typically following a straight-line path of more than 240 miles. It brings winds of tornado-like strength, with an average of 58 mph and gusts that can exceed 75 mph, and are commonly associated with the term “straight-line wind damage,” according to the National Weather Service. Winds from this storm reached 110 mph.
A three-block by three-block area from Louisiana Street to Travis Street and McKinney Street to Polk Street has been completely closed off due to shards of glass from the hundreds of windows blown out from the buildings there. A section of Smith Street and Louisiana Street between Clay Street and Pease Street has also been closed, along with Andrews Street between Smith and Shaw. A section of Lamar between Smith and Fannin Street has been closed as well. As many as 3,000 windows were damaged in downtown Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Broken windows are seen following a derecho that swept through downtown, May 17, 2024, in Houston (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images).
One of the other initially-viral signs of storm damage in the downtown area was Conejo Malo Htx, located on a closed section of Travis between Franklin Street and Commerce Street. Nearly the entire right side wall of the building was torn off, revealing much of the building’s interior. The remains of the wall laid across the parking lot and into the street. All events at the club have been moved to Vida Garden and Pick Your Poison, according to its Instagram.
Transmission towers were toppled in Cypress, which accounted for a portion of the nearly 922,000 customers who lost power during and after the storm. In total 10 transmission towers fell across the Houston area during the storm, according to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Cell service structures were linked to some of the downed towers, leading to many people losing cell reception.
Electricity facilities damaged by storms, May 17, 2024, in Houston (Photo by Chen Chen/Xinhua via Getty Images).
Tragically the storm took eight lives across Harris County and the Houston area. Overall, the storm is projected to have caused between $5 billion to $7 billion in damage, according to AccuWeather.
