Tomlinson: Houston’s storm proves need for resiliency
Workers clean out shattered glass at the Wells Fargo building as clean up from last week’s storm continues downtown on May 20. The city closed off streets in a six-block exclusion zone downtown, from McKinney to Polk and from Smith to Travis to ease traffic around the area where broken glass and debris are prevalent.
Broken glass and debris litter the ground at the intersection of Lamar and Milam as storm clean up continues downtown on Monday. The city closed off streets in a six-block exclusion zone downtown, from McKinney to Polk and from Smith to Travis to ease traffic around the area where broken glass and debris are prevalent.
Broken windows are seen following the May 16 storm.
Glass debris from windows blown out of damaged buildings downtown on May 17 in Houston, after a strong thunderstorm moved through Thursday evening.
Charlie Reyes reads in cooling center Saturday at Tracy Gee Community Center in Houston. “I was at a loss, I didn’t know what to do other than go hide,” he said of the storm. “Since then it’s been trying to keep myself OK.” He said he was at the center to charge his devices. “My poor car can only charge so much.”
Large shards of glass rained from downtown skyscrapers, and massive transmission line towers twisted into the ground in only minutes as near hurricane-strength winds whipped through Houston.
This storm did not come from the Gulf of Mexico, though. Last week’s line of thunderstorms lingered only a few hours but killed eight people, caused at least $5 billion in damage and left hundreds of thousands without power.
Houston’s late spring storm should........
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