![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.5309015.1683576191!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
One person in hospital after falling from swing ride at Canada's Wonderland
One person has been hospitalized after falling from a swing ride at Canada's Wonderland.
As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to hundreds of thousands after deadly storms left at least seven people dead, it will do so amid a smog warning and scorching temperatures that could pose health risks.
U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard said on Saturday that highs of around 32 C were expected through the start of the coming week, with heat indexes likely approaching 38 C by midweek.
“We expect the impact of the heat to gradually increase ... we will start to see that heat risk increase Tuesday into Wednesday through Friday,” Chenard said.
The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when humidity is combined with the air temperature, according to the weather service.
“Don’t overdo yourself during the cleanup process,” the weather service’s Houston office said in a post on the social platform X.
In addition to the heat, the Houston area could face poor air quality during the weekend.
Heavy rainfall was possible in eastern Louisiana and central Alabama on Saturday, and parts of Louisiana were also at risk for flooding.
The Houston Health Department said it would distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to area seniors, people with disabilities and caregivers of disabled children to contend with the heat.
Five cooling centers also were opened — four in Houston and one in Kingwood.
The widespread destruction of Thursday's storms brought much of Houston to a standstill. Thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds tore through the city — decimating the facade of one brick building and leaving trees, debris and shattered glass on the streets. A tornado also touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress.
More than a half-million homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity by midday Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. Another 21,000 customers were also without power in Louisiana, where strong winds and a suspected tornado hit.
CenterPoint Energy, which has deployed 1,000 employees to the area and is requesting 5,000 more, said power restoration could take several days or longer in some areas, and that customers need to ensure their homes can safely be reconnected.
“In addition to damaging CenterPoint Energy’s electric infrastructure and equipment, severe weather may have caused damage to customer-owned equipment” such as the weatherhead, which is where power enters the home, the company said.
Customers must have repairs completed by a qualified electrician before service can be restored, CenterPoint added.
High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for utility companies because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. Damage to just the distribution system is more typical, von Meier said.
How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, including the time it takes to assess the damage, equipment replacement, roadwork access issues and workforce availability.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported late Friday that three people died during the storm, including an 85-year-old woman whose home caught fire after being struck by lightning and a 60-year-old man who had tried to use his vehicle to power his oxygen tank.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire previously said at least four other people were killed in the city when the storms swept through Harris County, which includes Houston.
School districts in the Houston area canceled classes Friday for more than 400,000 students and government offices were closed.
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said Saturday that he hoped to reopen schools on Monday, but that is dependent upon the restoration of electricity in school buildings.
“If a school doesn't have power, it will remain closed,” Miles told reporters during a tour of the heavily damaged Sinclair Elementary School.
Whitmire warned that police were out in force, including state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting. He said the speed and intensity of the storm caught many off guard.
Noelle Delgado, executive director of Houston Pets Alive, said she pulled up at the animal rescue on Thursday night and found the dogs and cats — more than 30 in all — uninjured, but the building's awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled and water was leaking inside.
She hoped to find foster homes for the animals.
“I could definitely tell that this storm was a little different,” she said. “It felt terrifying.”
In light of the storm damage, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Whitmire both signed disaster declarations, paving the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance.
A separate disaster declaration from U.S. President Joe Biden makes federal funding available to people in seven Texas counties — including Harris — that have been affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 26.
Miller reported from Oklahoma City; Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed.
One person has been hospitalized after falling from a swing ride at Canada's Wonderland.
U.S. President Joe Biden used his highly anticipated news conference Thursday to deliver a forceful defence of his foreign and domestic policies, and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years even as he flubbed a reference to Donald Trump in one of his first answers.
A crash in Keremeos, B.C., Wednesday morning is the latest in a string of fatal collisions, this time claiming the lives of four people, Mounties say.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he continues to have 'full confidence' in Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, but he's also been talking to Mark Carney about entering federal politics.
A Calgary woman is facing charges for the death of her dog, which died after being left in a hot car on Canada Day.
Edmonton Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl is engaged to be married. The 28-year-old centre proposed to his girlfriend, actor Celeste Desjardins, who said yes. Both posted about the engagement Thursday to their Instagram accounts.
Former child actor Benji Gregory, who played the young boy on the 1980s television sitcom 'ALF,' has died in suburban Phoenix. He was 46.
Heavy rains associated with Hurricane Beryl and the earlier Tropical Storm Alberto have led at least 200 crocodiles to enter urban areas in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, across from Texas, state and federal authorities said this week.
Three days after a 4-year-old boy's body was pulled from a southwest Louisiana lake, and two days after the child's 1-year-old brother was rescued while crawling beside an interstate highway, Louisiana authorities announced a murder charge against the children's mother.
Seven-year-old goalie Hudson Hardill is an unlikely Calgary Flames fan, being that he lives in Peterborough, Ont., and his dad Chris is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
A WestJet employee's chance encounter on a recent flight spiced up her life in a big way.
A Kelowna, B.C., man says he's always liked gnomes because they have a 'bit of mystery' to them. And he recently got a taste of that whimsy when his garden gnomes disappeared, and came back to him in a peculiar fashion.
After more than 50 years, Toronto's iconic 'Leslieville dollhouse' will soon have a new owner.
One man is bringing a blast from the past to a Winnipeg community.
Some say a photograph is simply a memory frozen in time – and a high school graduation photo taken in Churchill, Man. takes that adage to a completely new level.
A rising track and field star overcame a big hurdle in his dream to represent Canada at the Olympics.
Would-be homebuyers who backed out of a deal to purchase a B.C. property in a hot real estate market have been ordered to pay the seller the difference between what they offered and what he was able to sell the home for when the market cooled.
Ottawa city councillor Tim Tierney has waited decades for the chance to meet his rock-star idols Nickelback.