Just over 100,000 Oncor customers in North and Central Texas were without power Friday afternoon as storms continued to threaten the timeline for repairs.
Line crews made steady progress into the afternoon. According to updates from Oncor’s outage map, more than 63,000 customers were in Dallas County. The data also showed roughly 3,300 customers without power in Collin County, just under 3,000 in Tarrant County, and just under 1,500 in Denton County.
Blistering winds and a deluge of rain swept through the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday, downing power lines and leaving more than half a million Oncor customers without electricity at its peak. Oncor officials have said the company called for help from out of state along with its own vegetation management team to remove trees from power lines that fell during the storms.
Oncor officials announced earlier this week that they anticipated restoration would be “substantially complete” by Friday evening, with “harder hit” areas expected to be restored Saturday. In an updated city news release Thursday, city officials wrote it could take into the weekend to complete repairs and said they are coordinating with Oncor to identify the “multi-family and senior living properties that remain without power and asking that they prioritize them.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a Friday afternoon news release said he added five counties, including two D-FW area counties, to the state’s disaster declaration. Such a declaration is a step toward unlocking aid for impacted residents from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Abbott added Dallas and Rockwall counties to the state’s declaration. Fannin, Hockley and Lynn were the other three Texas counties added to the disaster declaration. Additional counties may be added as damage assessments are completed in affected communities, according to the news release.
Those impacted are advised to complete the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s iSTAT damage survey. Responses to the survey will go toward determining whether counties are eligible for additional financial assistance, according to the news release.
Grant Cruise, a spokesperson for Oncor, previously said a portion of the extended outages were a result of downed power lines that needed to be completely rebuilt rather than undergo simple repairs.
“Heavy rain, thunder, lightning and flooding are impacting several of the communities where Oncor teams are working to restore these outages,” read a notice on Oncor’s website Friday morning.
Dallas officials have said they expect cleanup of fallen trees and other debris to take at least a month.
With Dallas ISD, the city of Dallas is sponsoring a multi-agency resource center at Truett Elementary, 1810 Inadale Ave., to provide recovery services to residents impacted by Tuesday’s storms. The center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Storms continued to move through North Texas Thursday, and rain was likely to linger in the metro area Friday until about 1 p.m., according to officials with the National Weather Service’s office in Fort Worth.
A flood watch expected to last until 7 p.m. Friday night expired for most of North Texas, including Dallas County, early Friday morning, the weather service said.
The series of storms come just days after a tornado tore through the Denton-Cooke County line, killing seven people and injuring more than 100 around the city of Valley View.