Dallas County issues disaster declaration after Tuesday morning storms
DALLAS - Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins issued a disaster declaration Tuesday morning after the severe storms that damaged dozens of homes and businesses.
The 6 a.m. storms brought winds above 80 miles per hour and dropped up to baseball-sized hail on parts of North Texas. Heavy rain also prompted flood warnings from the National Weather Service.
The hurricane-force winds left a maelstrom of damage across the county, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, toppling trees and power lines and home, business and car owners dealing with insurance headaches.
Jenkins issued the disaster declaration to help protect property and possibly get federal assistance for storm victims.
The judge said there is no plan for a curfew, but neighborhoods with a lot of damage and power outages can expect to see more law enforcement.
At last check, more than half a million Oncor customers in North Texas are without power, including about 380,000 customers in Dallas County.
Oncor says it is prioritizing critical facilities, making sure places like police stations and health care centers have power.
"Our teams immediately mobilized. They were prepositioned and began working on some of those critical facilities," said Grant Cruise with the electric delivery company.
Oncor also has mutual aid coming in from other states, along with more poles, transformers and power lines.
"We have also, created staging sites for equipment to be moved in so that it can quickly be moved out to where it's needed," Cruise said.
But with some transmission poles needing complete replacement, the process could take days.
County leaders are urging people to make safe decisions.
"We want to make sure we stay away from downed power lines," said Scott Forster with the Dallas County Office of Emergency Management. "Assume every line that is down is live. We want to have generators safely. Make sure it's outside."
No water treatment plants have been affected by the power outages, so Jenkins said all tap water in the county is safe to drink.
Power outages: More than 500,000 without power in North Texas
Thousands of people are without power on Tuesday morning after strong storms blew through North Texas.
Also, because of the storms, Dallas County had more than 100 closed polling locations due to outages. However, the county emphasized there were still 180 voting centers open and available.