More than a dozen people got stranded in an elevator near the top of Reunion Tower after it lost power on Sunday.
The incident occurred shortly before 5:50 p.m. on September 25 at the famous observation tower in the west end of Downtown Dallas.
Thunderstorms caused a number of power outages in the area, including the outage that led to this “elevator emergency.”
Dallas Fire-Rescue (DFR) responded to the scene and alerted its specialized urban search-and-rescue team in case it was needed.
In about one hour, firefighters were able to open the doors and get 13 people outside the elevator and onto an interior staircase, according to DFR spokesman Jason Evans.
No one was injured.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southwestern Dallas County that day.
At 5:15 p.m., Oncor Electric’s outage map showed more than 9,600 downtown customers without power.
During the height of Sunday’s storms, at least 14,000 Oncor customers lost power across North Texas.
Around 8 p.m., the Dallas Zoo tweeted that it would delay its Monday opening to 11 a.m. because of “storm clean-up work.”
According to NWS meteorologist Steve Fano, wind speeds up to 48 mph were reported at Dallas Love Field Airport.
Fano added that in some parts of Dallas County, including Addison, winds over 50 mph were reported.
The storms moved through Dallas ahead of a cold front, according to Fano. He said temperatures are expected to be about 10 degrees cooler throughout the week.
“It’s not going to be an abrupt cold front like we get in the wintertime,” he said. “It will just be kind of an increase in wind speeds and temperatures will slowly start to cool.”
On Sunday, September 4, as reported in The Dallas Express, severe thunderstorms destroyed trees and power lines, leaving 91,000 customers without power across Dallas.