Amid storms, Texas governor urges residents to prepare for hurricanes

Roughly 400,000 customers in Texas were without power Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.US. Severe weather warnings remained in effect across much of the state on Tuesday, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had also secured federal assistance for more than two dozen counties on Tuesday, and then later that same day reported that federal assistance was also headed to five more counties. Weather in the region could still get worse, and Abbott on Tuesday proclaimed a Hurricane Preparedness Week.

Has the death toll increased since earlier this week? Several states reported additional deaths due to storms:

• At least one more person has died from the storms in Texas, according to media reports. Gov. Abbott had previously said seven people had died in the state during the weekend.

• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reported that a fifth person had died during storm recovery efforts in Caldwell County. The 54-year-old man had a heart attack while cutting trees, the Beshear said. Previously, Beshear had said that four people had died from the storms that plowed across the state over the weekend.

• The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reported two fatalities earlier this week.

• Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders reported a death toll of at least eight people in her state. Meanwhile, a 51-year-old Colorado rancher died from a lightning strike that killed more than thirty of his cattle, as well, according to a local media report.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about the storm damage and fatalities earlier this week.