HOUSTON
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for several counties when the storms rolled in from the north right around rush hour.
The intense storm cell hit just before 6pm Monday and smashed utility poles for about five blocks near Crossview and Richmond. As they came down, they also briefly trapped about 50 teenagers inside the Westheimer Indoor Tennis Club.
"We all went to check the windows and just the trees and everything was going crazy," said Denissa Gonzalez, one of the teenagers trapped inside the building.
Once the storm passed, storm debris was no longer an issue. Dozens of students used a rear emergency exit to leave the building.
"All of a sudden, one of my friends comes up and tells me I got a telephone wire going through my truck," said Stuart Kenyon, one of those stuck teens.
And Kenyon's car wasn't the only one. At least one other car was damaged from fallen utility poles.
The storm stretched from the northeast of downtown Houston to the southwest part of the viewing area. The storm brought with it heavy rain and straight-line wind damage, as well as some marble and pea size hail. In fact, CenterPoint tells us that at least eight wood transmission poles at Richmond and Fondren snapped. And they say that's the first time that's happened since Hurricane Ike.
The slow moving storms filled some feeder roads in Sugar Land and caused major power outages all around town. In fact, at around 7pm, CenterPoint said there were nearly 100,000 customers without power, but by 10pm, that number was about half that.
There are no reports of anyone injured in Monday's storms.
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