Frustrations rise amid continued power outages in Houston after Beryl
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More than 1 million people in the Houston area remain without power after Beryl. Photo: Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images
It's been miserably hot and unbearable in Houston, especially for the more than 1 million CenterPoint Energy customers still without power three days after Beryl hit.
Why it matters: Houston is no stranger to storms, yet Beryl — a damaging hurricane, though not the worst we've seen by far — revealed the nation's fourth-largest city's lack of preparedness to respond to mass power outages.
The big picture: As CenterPoint Energy works to restore power, those in the dark are still waiting with no clear idea when their lights — and AC — will come back on.
- Meanwhile, the city is under a heat advisory until 8pm Thursday.
By the numbers: More than 2.2 million customers were without power on Monday.
- On Tuesday, CenterPoint Energy officials said they expected to restore power to 1 million customers by the end of Wednesday. The company reached that goal, leaving 1.1 million customers without power.
- Officials said Wednesday that based on the utility's progress, they expect to have an additional 400,000 customers restored by the end of the day Friday, and 350,000 more by the end of the day Sunday.
CenterPoint says more specific restoration times will be available Thursday.
State of play: Beryl has upheaved life in Houston over the past three days, with many residents who faced power outages and damage after the derecho in May experiencing hardship again.
- Residents are scrambling to stay cool and provide care to elderly and disabled individuals reliant on medical devices.
- There were wraparound lines at gas stations and drive-thru restaurants, and people have been racing to find ice to preserve any food they have left. Many have suffered lost wages and spoiled food.
Friction point: CenterPoint leaders said Beryl, which killed at least seven people in the Houston area, was unpredictable and hit more intensely than the utility expected.
- CenterPoint's outage map was down for much of the first two days. When it went live Tuesday night, some users found it to be less than accurate. Meanwhile, many resorted to the Whataburger app, sought information from neighbors on Nextdoor, and used the Ring app to gauge power availability.
The bottom line: The recovery from the storm has been bumpy, from ambulances and hospitals being backed up and having to convert a storm-damaged NRG into a 250-bed facility to hundreds of thousands of Xfinity customers being left without internet access.
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- Property owners should report damage online to damage.tdem.texas.gov.
What we're watching: Acting Gov. Dan Patrick vowed to look closely at CenterPoint's response when recovery is complete, and Mayor John Whitmire said the city must focus on preparing for the next storm.