Restoring power to parts of North Texas could take days
NORTH TEXAS – Hundreds of thousands of North Texans are still without power.
A representative for Oncor said crews are working around the clock. They don't have a specific time for when the power will be fully restored but say the damage is extensive and it will likely take days.
"When the storm started kicking up this morning, I knew immediately that this was going to be more extreme than anything we've ever experienced in this house before," Richardson homeowner Megan Torney said.
She told her family to get in their safe space.
"It's the most scared that I've been in a storm before," she said. "The wind was unlike anything I ever heard before."
The fast-moving severe storm brought down several mature trees in her neighborhood. As cleanup begins, residents are also dealing with the headache of not having power.
"Someone said tonight it could come back on," Laura Rule said. "Someone also said it could be two days from now. So, I don't know."
Oncor restoration crews are working across DFW. At one point, they were dealing with more than 600,000 outages. They're focusing first on critical facilities before moving to more isolated outages.
"We're looking at complete reconstruction for parts of our area," Oncor representative Grant Cruise said. "I do want to say that we have already requested assistance from utilities across Texas. We are also calling in crews potentially from out of state. We've also made contact with those mutual assistance resources."
"This unfortunately will be a multi-day power outage situation similar to the one you saw in Harris County, and Houston," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said.
He has signed a disaster declaration for Dallas County and is emphasizing the importance of having a plan.
"I think we're pretty comfortable weathering it out for at least a couple of days," Torney said. "If it gets going any longer than that, we might get in the car and drive up to my folks place in Iowa, but I think we'll try and rough it for a few days."