Houston Astros relief pitcher Hector Neris (50) reacts after getting Seattle Mariners Cal Raleigh (29) to ground out with the bases loaded in the sixth inning during Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Minute Maid Park on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, in Houston.
HOUSTON — The storm that hurtled through Houston late Thursday surprised a city long accustomed to bouts of serious weather. The Astros kept playing baseball, even as rain and wind whipped into the team’s closed-dome stadium. Many people, following their evening routines, were caught unaware on bikes or at the gym.
By Friday, all across town — but particularly in the dense and verdant inner loop neighborhoods that radiate from the city’s skyscrapers — Houstonians confronted a cityscape of debris left by winds of up to 100 mph, as strong as some of the hurricanes that have hit the city in recent years.
Decades-old oak and pecan trees were ripped in two or knocked over at the roots, flattening fences or blocking roadways. Stop signs leaned at sharp angles. Highway billboards buckled, including the Car Wreck Cowboy, a local lawyer whose sign, usually towering over Interstate 45 near downtown, had been flattened into an empty lot.
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At least seven people died as a result of the storm, and about 1 million people on the Gulf Coast lost power. The seriousness of the moment was underscored when Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a moderate Democrat, and the top county official, Lina Hidalgo, a progressive, put aside their differences and held a joint news conference Friday — their first since Whitmire was elected last year.
Residents spoke of horizontal rain and detritus swirling into the air, and wondered whether a tornado had passed through.
“It was like we were in the middle of a blender,” said Martha Rosas, who sat outside her home with her sister Friday, surrounded by citronella candles. They provided light to the powerless home the night before, and now warded off swarms of attacking mosquitoes.
