TYLER (KYTX) - Electric companies call Saturday's storm the worst in half a decade. Thousands of people are finally enjoying cool air conditioning tonight after going without power this weekend.
Charles Hill with Oncor in Tyler says, "We had a total as high as 24,000 customers out in Tyler."
One of those people was Cari Claiborne.
"I was in the front yard with my dog and I hear cracking and I look over the top of my house and I see the tree fall," she said.
The three foot wide tree crushed her kids' trampoline, hit the back of her roof, and fell straight into the nearby power lines.
"My power was out the rest of the night Saturday night, and then yesterday when it was so hot and then it started raining, which made the humidity that much worse."
She says when the giant tree came down on those power lines, and cut power to her house, she wasn't prepared. She and her children spent the whole night in the dark inside the house without flashlights.
She says next time, she'll be ready. Now, she has an emergency kit.
"I put a jug of water in there so I'd have one, I put a bag of batteries, and a flashlight, this is a little battery operated fan."
Hill says power outages in the middle of a Texas summer can be very dangerous because of extreme heat.
"The main thing people can do is stay hydrated. Lots of water," he said.
He suggests getting out of the house and into air conditioning while crews get your power back up and running.
Also, if you have dead trees that might hit power lines let your electric company know.
