Four dead after severe storms lash Texas; tornadoes, floods loom in Southeast U.S.

Powerful storms blasted Texas on Thursday evening with winds as high as 80 mph and heavy rain, killing four, causing power outages to more than a million customers, toppling trees and dumping even more heavy rain on a region already waterlogged from recent storms.

A tornado watch shifted eastward with the storms, sliding from Texas to southern Louisiana as the strong storms moved through the region. Flood warnings or watches for intense rainfall were in effect through Mississippi and Alabama and as far east as the Florida Panhandle, and the National Weather Service warned of a "high risk" of excessive rainfall at the Texas-Louisiana state line north of Beaumont through Friday morning.

In a briefing, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said four people were killed in the storms and warned people to stay off the roads.

"We had a storm with 100 mph winds, the equivalent of Hurricane Ike, with considerable damage downtown," Whitmire said. Areas in the northwest, downtown and the east side of town were "hit hard" and "most of the traffic lights" in the city were down.

"Stay at home tonight, don't go to work tomorrow unless you're an essential worker," the mayor said. "Stay at home, I can't emphasize that enough."

"We're still in a recovery mode," Whitmire said, adding the state was sending workers from the Texas Department of Public Safety to help secure downtown Houston.

Weather service meteorologists in Houston warned that the winds were so high across such a broad area it would be difficult to determine whether a tornado had touched down without direct photo evidence or a field survey.

Large tall office buildings in the central business district have lost a lot of their windows and glass, Whitmire said.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña offered explanations for three of the deaths, saying falling trees caused two of the fatalities and a third appeared to have been caused by an accident when strong winds blew a crane over.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez posted on X that an adult female died in a house fire. It wasn't immediately clear if that death was among the four mentioned by Whitmire and Peña.

Emergency management officials shared photos with the weather service of a set of towers holding high-voltage transmission lines lying on the ground and sitting askew in the Houston area.

"We had firefighters taking live wires off 290 this afternoon that were blocking the thoroughfares," Whitmire said, and most of the traffic lights downtown were out of service.

CenterPoint Energy, the second biggest electrical provider in Texas, posted on X that a "fast moving but severe weather system has caused widespread power outages across the service area" and warned that restoration times might be delayed or unavailable.

Whitmire said it would take at least 48 hours to repair some of the electrical outages.

As of 11 p.m. Thursday, power outages in Texas hovered around 1 million homes and businesses, according to a USA TODAY outage tracker and poweroutage.us. In Louisiana, more than 70,000 customers were without electricity.

Storms hit Louisiana

Later Thursday evening, the weather service in Lake Charles warned of the potential for 90 mph in part of its region.

After warning of high winds in excess of 80 mph, the weather service in New Orleans reported an 82 mph gust at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport and an 84 mph gust in Kenner, Louisiana.

Street flooding and flash flooding was reported through the evening as heavy rain fell and nearly 200,000 power outages across the state.

Earlier in the day, the weather service had warned of possible life-threatening flash floods, hail and tornadoes across the southern Plains and Gulf Coast – the latest wave in a series of dangerous storms that have lashed the region in recent weeks.

More than 15 million people were under weather advisories, with the most severe watches and warnings issued for east-central Texas and Louisiana, where the weather service warned of a "high" risk – at least a 70% chance – of "life-threatening flash flooding."

Over 350 flights were delayed and nearly 100 were canceled at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as thunderstorms picked up in intensity. Departing flights were delayed on average by more than two and a half hours, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA added that a ground stop at the major airport was "possible."

Crews with the Texas Department of Transportation in Lufkin, a city about 170 miles southeast of Dallas, planned to work "through the night," monitoring roadways for flooding and other possible emergencies, the agency said in a statement.

Rainfall rates of 1-2 inches per hour will be common while some areas may get hit with upwards of 3 inches per hour, the weather service said. Over the past two weeks, eastern Texas and parts of Louisiana have "seen over 600% of their normal rainfall," only increasing the chances of flooding as the new storms sweep through the Gulf Coast.

"Soils are not expected to retain any of the rainfall expected today," the weather service warned, adding that the rain will "re-raise levels in smaller creeks and streams, while the major rivers already in flood stage will also see rises."

At least 4 dead after storms in Texas, Louisiana this month

Since late April, Texas and Louisiana have faced recent rounds of severe and deadly weather. This month, hundreds of people had to be evacuated from eastern Texas in a deluge that took the life of a 4-year-old boy and led to historic river flooding. In Louisiana, three people, including an unborn baby, were killed when potent storms kicked up tornadoes and ravaged communities across the state on Monday.

More: Maps: 2024 tornado season is ramping up to set records

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested a presidential disaster declaration for assistance programs for 26 counties that were impacted by storms since April 26. More than $58 million in public infrastructure damages has been requested by local jurisdictions throughout the state.

"The extensive damage caused by these severe storms, historic river flooding, and tornadoes requires comprehensive, robust action by all levels of government to help Texans build and recover," Abbott said in a statement.

System to drench the Gulf Coast into the weekend

The Gulf Coast has not been able to catch a break from severe weather in recent weeks, and the latest storm system won't be an exception.

The storms are expected to develop from moisture from the Gulf of Mexico through Thursday afternoon and evening as they continue heading east. After nightfall, meteorologists expect them to weaken a bit as they move over eastern Louisiana and into Mississippi, though the tail end of the system could bring fierce conditions.

On Friday, severe thunderstorms are possible from far southeast Texas into much of Louisiana, Mississippi and western Alabama, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said.

By Saturday, intermittent showers and thunderstorms could crop up from southern Louisiana, through northern Florida and up the Atlantic coast to the Carolinas. The chance of dangerous or damaging conditions will, however, be much slimmer than on Thursday and Friday.

This year's tornado season is among the most active

This year's tornado season, which generally runs from March to June, is on track to be one of the busiest in recorded history.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, there have been 781 preliminary tornado reports nationwide as of last Wednesday, far more than the historical average of 549 through May 8.

Tornado activity is still extremely active this month. At least 237 tornadoes have been reported nationwide in May, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The majority of them have been concentrated in and around Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Missouri. But there have also been reports of twisters as far south as the Florida Panhandle.

During the monthslong stretch, twisters are most common in "Tornado Alley," a vast swath of the central U.S. including states such as Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. So far, Texas has been struck by the most tornadoes this year, with a preliminary report total of 69 as of Tuesday. Other states were not far behind: Ohio had 65; Iowa reported 64; Missouri, 61; and Kansas had 58 twisters.

National weather radar

Texas weather advisories

Contributing: Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thursday weather forecast calls for possible tornadoes across South