The soaring heat in Houston has deepened the misery for thousands of people still without power after Hurricane Beryl crashed into Texas and left residents in search of places to cool off and fuel up as the extended outages strained one of the nation’s largest cities. Now as thousands await the return of their power, recovery and relief efforts are underway, and the blame game begins.
Beryl, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, has been blamed for at least seven U.S. deaths — one in Louisiana and six in Texas — and at least 11 in the Caribbean. For many of the millions it was a miserable repeat after storms in May killed eight people and left nearly 1 million without power amid flooded streets.
Massive outages
Frustration mounted that Houston appeared to buckle under a storm less powerful than previous ones. State officials faced questions over whether Houston’s power utility had sufficiently prepared. Power outages peaked at 2.7 million customers after the storm made landfall in Texas, according to PowerOutage.us.
Brad Tutunjian, the CenterPoint vice president for regulatory policy who faced pointed questions from the City Council, defended the company’s response. He said more than 1 million customers have had their power.
“To me, I think that’s a monumental number right there,” Tutunjian said.
The company acknowledged that most of the 12,000 workers it brought in to help the recovery effort were not in the Houston area when the storm arrived. Initial forecasts had the storm blowing ashore much farther south along Gulf Coast, near the Texas-Mexico border, before heading toward Houston.
The company would not ask third-party workers from other companies and municipalities to pre-position and “ride out” the storm, “because that is not safe,” Tutunjian said. Instead, they are asked to be as close as possible to respond after the storm moves through.
Restoring service
It could take days or longer to fully restore power to the Houston area after Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas, leaving millions of residents in the dark and without air conditioning in searing summer heat.
The slow pace of restoring power in America’s fourth-largest city has put CenterPoint Energy, Houston’s utility provider, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared before the storm and was working fast enough to get the lights back on.
CenterPoint Energy has defended its preparation for the storm and said that it had brought in about 12,000 additional workers from outside Houston since landfall to expedite power restoration.
Under sometimes sharp questioning from Houston city councilmembers about the utility’s handling of the storm, Brad Tutunjian, vice president for regulatory policy for CenterPoint Energy, said it wouldn’t have been safe to pre-position outside crews to “ride out” the storm.
He said the extensive damage to trees and power poles has hampered the ability to restore power quickly.
“When we have storms such as this, with the tree completely coming down … taking out our lines and our poles, that’s where all the time comes in to do the restoration work,” he said.
But council members pressed the executive about why the company, which has been the Houston area for about 100 years, hasn’t been more aggressive in trimming trees during calm weather or putting more of its power lines underground. The company has been putting new lines underground in residential areas for decades, Tutunjian responded.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is serving as acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is oveseas, said nursing homes and assisted living centers were the highest priority. Sixteen hospitals were running on generator power according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Blame game
Mayor John Whitmire expressed a lot of anger throughout Houston’s first city council meeting since Hurricane Beryl’s landfall. Whitmire blamed the storm issues on previous administrations, saying they “neglected” the city’s ability to function during severe weather. He said 10 fire stations, several multi-service centers, and the George R. Brown Convention Center weren’t operational due to a lack of generators.
“I’m not in the business of grading. I’m in the business of saying, ‘Let’s get it done,'” Whitmire said. “We demand that they do better.”
There was a lot of discussion about what the company can do to prevent this from happening in the future.
Tutunjian said CenterPoint has drafted a multi-billion dollar resiliency plan to improve things over a three-year period.
It would cost more than $2 billion and is currently being reviewed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
Recovery
Houstonians whose homes were ravaged by Hurricane Beryl should already be thinking about filing insurance claims for the damages they sustained, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.
“You need to get your claim started as soon as possible,” Insurance Commissioner Cassie Brown said in a statement, adding that the state agency could help anyone who runs into trouble contacting or understanding their provider. The state helpline for residents can be reached at 800-252-3439.
President Joe Biden has declared the area a federal disaster, making residents eligible for additional grants and loans to help people repair home damages. As of press time, the FEMA application for disaster assistance has not opened up. But residents are urged to continually monitor www.disasteraid.gov.
In the meantime, the Texas Division of Emergency Management also asked residents to submit online damage reports of home destruction through their Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool (https://damage.tdem.texas.gov/)
Resources
If you were affected by Beryl, here are some things to know:
Assess the damage
*Before removing limbs or trees take photos and video of the damage done.
*Don’t throw anything away.
*Make temporary repairs to prevent more damage. Cover broken windows and roof damage to keep rain out.
*Keep a list of the repairs and save receipts.
*Don’t make permanent repairs before the insurance adjuster sees the damage.
*Call your insurance agent or company as soon as possible to report property damage.
Cooling Centers
The following cooling centers are open to help you take refuge from these high temperatures:
Southwest Multi-Service Center
6400 High Star Dr.
Houston, TX 77074
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunnyside Health and Multi-Service Center
4410 Reed Rd.
Houston, TX 77051
1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Acres Homes Multi-Service Center
6719 W Montgomery Rd.
Houston, TX 77091
1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Metropolitan Multi-Service Center
1475 W Gray St.
Houston, TX 77019
1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Fondé Community Center
110 Sabine St.
Houston, TX 77007
12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Moody Community Center
3725 Fulton St.
Houston, TX 77009
12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
DN ONLINE: See more Cooling Centers
Shelters
Houston
Gallery Furniture
6006 North Fwy.
Houston, TX 77076
Fort Bend Co.
Fort Bend County Fairgrounds
Building C
4310 Highway 36 South
Rosenberg, TX 77471
For additional shelter information, dial American Red Cross at 1-800-733-2767.
Box
State Insurance Helpline
1-800-252-3439.
FEMA
Disaster assistance
