Hundreds of Thousands Without Power as Tropical Storm Nicholas Brings Deadly Floods to US South

© REUTERS / Adrees LatifA crew restore power to traffic lights in the aftermath of Hurricane Nicholas in League City, Texas, U.S., September 14, 2021
A crew restore power to traffic lights in the aftermath of Hurricane Nicholas in League City, Texas, U.S., September 14, 2021 - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.09.2021
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With wind gusts up to 90 miles-per-hour (145 kilometers-per-hour), Tropical Storm Nicholas was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane before touching down in Texas early Tuesday morning. In addition to widespread power outages, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects "life-threatening" flash floods in the southern US within the coming days.
Although Hurricane Nicholas was downgraded to a tropical storm as it traversed inland from the gulf coast on Tuesday morning - around 3:00 a.m. CDT - the NHC has issued several advisories for many areas of Texas and the neighboring state of Louisiana.
As of 1:00 p.m. CDT, the NHC recorded that Tropical Storm Nicholas has averaged maximum sustained winds between 45 mph (72 kph) to 65 mph (105 kph). Forecasters have warned that an already storm drenched Louisiana may be hit with life-threatening flood-waters as the system stalls over the southern US state.
Texas appears to be on the road to recovery in terms of power outages, as nearly 500,000 power outages were reported around the time Nicholas made landfall.
Presently, over 266,000 homes are said to still be without power, according to PowerOutage.US. Louisiana has also been hit hard with outages, reporting an excess of 96,000 outages, as of this article's publication.
CenterPoint Energy, a major electric and natural gas utility service, told Houston outlet ABC13 that crews have been deployed in the hopes of restoring power, but customers may observe outages that last for five to seven days.
"We are committed to restoring service to our customers as safely and quickly as possible," said Kenny Mercado, CenterPoint Energy's executive vice president for electric utility. "However, patience will be important as some areas of our system and equipment may be difficult to reach for our crews due to safety-related issues, such as downed trees."
Some 3,200 resources have been deployed by CenterPoint, according to officials. Customers have been warned to stay clear of downed power lines.
Nicholas is expected to continue to weaken throughout Tuesday, and is expected to become a tropical depression later in the week, perhaps by Wednesday.
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