In a matter of minutes, winds of up to 100 miles per hour blew out windows on office buildings, uprooted trees and toppled electric poles and transmission towers.
The damage from the storm was so extensive that, five days later, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were still marooned in the heat and darkness.
Luckily, the day the derecho blew in, the temperature in Houston, a city infamous for its swampy summers, was in the low to mid-80s.
Of the at least eight deaths reported as a result of the storm, none were from heat exposure.
But if this storm had arrived several days later, perhaps over the Memorial Day weekend, when the temperature in Houston hit 96 degrees, with a heat index as high as 115, it might have been a very different story.
Persons:
Mikhail Chester
Organizations:
Metis Center, Infrastructure, Sustainable Engineering, Arizona State University
Locations:
Houston, America, Louisiana, New Orleans