Houston, Texas – The return of searing heat has exacerbated the misery for Houston residents still without power following Hurricane Beryl. Many are searching for places to cool off and fuel up as extended outages strain the city.
As of Wednesday morning, more than 1.7 million homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity, down from a peak of over 2.7 million on Monday, according to PowerOutage.us. State officials are facing scrutiny over whether the power utility, which covers much of the area, had adequately prepared.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced that a sports and event complex would temporarily accommodate up to 250 hospital patients awaiting discharge but unable to return to homes without power.
Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane and has been blamed for at least seven U.S. deaths — one in Louisiana and six in Texas — and at least 11 in the Caribbean. The storm weakened as it moved inland and was a post-tropical cyclone centered over northeastern Indiana by early Wednesday.
A flood watch was in effect for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The storm spawned suspected tornadoes in parts of Indiana and Kentucky. In the Houston area, Beryl compounded the misery from storms in May, which killed eight people and left nearly 1 million without power.
High temperatures on Tuesday climbed into the 90s (above 32.2°C) with humidity making it feel even hotter. Similar heat and humidity were expected on Wednesday. The National Weather Service described the conditions as potentially dangerous due to the lack of power and air conditioning.
Residents coped as best they could. Kyuta Allen took her family to a Houston community center to cool down and use the internet. “During the day you can have the doors open, but at night you’ve got to board up and lock up — lock yourself like into a sauna,” she said.
Brad Tutunjian, vice president of regulatory policy for CenterPoint Energy, which serves much of the Houston area, defended the utility’s preparation and response. “From my perspective, to have a storm pass at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, have those crews come in in the late evening, and have everything ready by 5 a.m. to go out and start the workforce is rather impressive because we’re talking about thousands of crews,” he said.
Nim Kidd, head of the state’s division of emergency management, emphasized that restoring power was the top priority. Acting Governor Patrick stated that nursing homes and assisted living centers were the highest priority. Sixteen hospitals were running on generator power as of Tuesday morning, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As the city continues to recover, the challenges posed by the heat and power outages highlight the ongoing need for robust emergency preparedness and response efforts.
