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A woman looks at the damage caused by fallen bricks in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm Friday in Houston<\/p>\n\n\n\nA woman looks at the damage caused by fallen bricks in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm Friday in Houston<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HOUSTON, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least seven people were killed in the Houston area as a\u00a0destructive complex of storms<\/a>\u00a0with winds up to 100 mph tore through the area, triggering power outages that could stretch on for weeks amid soaring temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The death toll rose Friday evening from the four fatalities officials reported earlier in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 900,000 homes and businesses lost power in Houston\u2019s Harris County during the peak of the storm\u2019s violent winds, and nearly 600,000 remained in the dark Friday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor some folks, the luckier ones, (power restoration) might be days, not hours. For many, many people, it\u2019s going to be weeks and not days,\u201d Harris County Judge Lina Hildago said in a Friday news briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hidalgo said the weeks-long restoration timeframe was for homes and businesses tied into the 10 steel power transmission towers downed in the state, seven of which were in Harris County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s unclear which areas are tied into the transmission lines, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a troubling timeframe for power restoration, especially as high temperatures reach the 90s through the weekend and beyond. The heat index, which measures what the body actually feels<\/a>, could hit the triple-digits by next week, raising health risks from weather\u2019s deadliest threat. The City of Houston planned to activate cooling centers for residents on Friday, officials said in a news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fallen trees appear to have caused two of the reporteddeaths, and a crane accident caused another, Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pe\u00f1a said in a news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office on Friday evening identified three others in the county who died from the storm. One man collapsed while attempting to move a downed electrical pole, and a woman died after lightning struck the trailer she was inside and caused a fire, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a post on X<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gonzales said another victim who had lost power reportedly went out to his truck to plug in his oxygen tank. \u201cHe was found unresponsive this morning and pronounced deceased at the scene,\u201d the sheriff said Friday, adding the additional deaths occurred in unincorporated Harris County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n