OAN’s James Meyers
11:13 AM – Friday, May 10, 2024
Texas saw hail that was the “size of baseballs” on Thursday, as severe weather has left over 200,000 people without power and prompted cleanup operations.
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Footage captured from Johnston City, Texas, showed giant hailstones that were at least five inches in diameter, which is large enough to break an SUV’s rear window. One discovered hailstone was an estimated 6.25 inches across, which would make the second largest hailstone ever found in the state of Texas.
Since 1950, there have only been four verified hailstones over six inches.
A spokesperson for the city of San Marcos said that they received “reports of downed power lines and uprooted trees” due to Thursday’s storm.
The hail comes after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes wreaked havoc on the Midwest, and then through the Southeast this week, resulting in at least three people dying due to the massive storms.
Close to 95,000 Alabama residents were without power as of 7 a.m. ET, as well as 57,000 in Mississippi, according to PowerOutage.us. Georgia and North Carolina each had around 17,000 power outages.
Medic Lydia Torres told NBC News Dallas-Fort Worth that the sound of hail landing on her ambulance was like a bomb.
“It sounded like bombs were hitting the top of the ambulance. Especially when it hit the top of the windshield, you could see the glass start to shatter everywhere,” she said.
However, the majority of outages are in Florida, where 197,405 are experiencing power outages. Northern parts of the Sunshine State have received severe thunderstorms that could turn into tornadoes, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
“Damaging to destructive winds, isolated tornadoes, and large hail will be the main threats,” the National Weather Service in Tallahassee reported. “Heavy rainfall could also become a concern if redevelopment and training of storms occurs behind this complex of storms this afternoon.”
Meanwhile, next week flash flooding is a major concern along the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, where between five and seven inches of rain is expected.
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