WATCH: Trail of Destruction Left In Houston After Severe Storm Batters the City

Houston Mayor John Whitmire told the press on Friday morning that “We’re in recovery mode” after a severe storm system battered the country’s fourth-largest city, killing at least 4 people.

Fox Weather’s Britta Merwin reported on Friday, noting that “The storm surged into the Houston metro area with winds as high as 78mph. The screaming rain and wind looked and sounded like something comparable to a hurricane.”

“You know, you talk about these huge, towering buildings that are downtown, glass blown out and just scattered across the streets below,” Merwin continued, adding:

An early look at the damage this morning shows the cleanup ahead. I mean, gosh, it’s littered an insulation glass. In fact, the storm brought the worst damage to downtown Houston that they’ve seen since Hurricane Ike. That was back in 2008. That hurricane, by the way, in 2008, brought winds at least 75mph. But there were some very intense wind gusts.

In fact, the top wind gusts during Hurricane Ike at Bush Airport was 82. Hobby airport had a wind gust of 92mph. But you know that that’s the last time that downtown looked like this. And so you can understand why many Houstonians are waking up this morning. And that’s what they’re comparing it to. How I look at it, it’s it’s almost like we’ve had damage that’s reminiscent of Hurricane Ike happening in 30 minutes rather than an all-day hurricane event.

INTENSE MOMENT: Debris was seen flying through the air outside the Wells Fargo Plaza in downtown Houston as a tornado-warned storm moved through the area. #TXwx pic.twitter.com/gSNvtsrTeF

— FOX Weather (@foxweather) May 17, 2024

NEW: Hurricane-force winds leave trail of destruction throughout Houston – @reportingjoy on @foxweather with the latest details pic.twitter.com/FtsnxdGNsS

— Fox News MMR (@FoxNewsMMR) May 17, 2024

Watch the clip above.