Hurricane Beryl caused an estimated 52 deaths worldwide and left 2.7 million Houston businesses, schools, and homes without power. In the wake of Beryl’s destruction, many residents are left with more questions than answers and a dire outlook on the future.
Major steps need to be taken immediately for Houston to see a better tomorrow and avoid more environmental disasters, such as updating critical energy infrastructure city wide, and fixing the vast communication issues they have had with their citizens.
As the dubbed “energy capital of the world,” residents have expected Houston’s infrastructure to live up to its namesake and withstand these powerful storms. Unfortunately, over the last several years, residents have continually lost their power due to rising cases of extreme weather.
A changing climate
Hurricane season lasts in the United States from June 1 to Nov. 30. Due to record-high ocean warming temperatures and the recent La Niña effect, hurricanes are expected to be more frequent and intense this year.
As it stands today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service forecasters are estimating an 85% chance of an above-normal hurricane season this year.
Avantika Gori is an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University. Her main areas of focus are coastal flood risks and climate change’s impact on cyclone climatology. In her expert opinion, the city’s response and preparation for the hurricane have been less than ideal.
“The number one goal in the wake of Beryl is to really reassess the power system in Houston. The city, CenterPoint and the state really need to figure out how they can strategically invest in hardening the power system infrastructure to be able to resist hurricane winds… That level of wind speed should not be causing 85% of the city to lose power. So in my opinion, that’s unacceptable,” says Gori.
Houston has been trying to find funding to update its infrastructure. The grants needed to fund the projects, though, are hard to come by. Recently, the Department of Energy rejected CenterPoint’s $100 million proposal to update its energy centers. This forced the company to revise its proposal entirely and submit it for review later this year.
Houston’s infrastructure issues have been a hot-button issue for the city ever since Hurricane Harvey. However, like many other hot-button political issues, it seems to have gotten cast to the side, and citizens lose interest.
Ed Emmett, former Harris County Judge, is not one of those people. Emmett served as Houston’s Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management during Hurricane Ike and received national acclaim for his work during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He believes that the first mistake CenterPoint made during Hurricane Beryl was the lack of communication between the company and citizens, and the poor infrastructure that Houston currently maintains.
“I think everybody agrees, I think even CenterPoint agrees; their communication has been a mess. But long term, communication doesn’t kill you. Not having the right infrastructure can cause serious problems,” says Emmett.
Houston could implement multiple solutions to modernize its energy infrastructure now. These potential solutions include managing trees near transmission lines, making transmission poles more wind-retardant, and burying the transmission lines themselves, which is the most expensive option.
The city does have options; the real roadblock is generating the money needed to complete this endeavor.