Nearly 1.7 million people in Texas are entering a third day without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. The acting governor, Dan Patrick, said in a statement that bringing back power will be a “multi-day restoration event”.
Governor Greg Abbott, who is on a trip to Asia, is facing criticism for his absence from the state during a natural disaster.
Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday, taking down power lines that left nearly 3 million people without electricity at the peak of the outages. Much of south-east Texas including Houston is enduring dangerously high temperatures with no air conditioning amid an ongoing heatwave.
“With power outages continuing across south-east Texas, the lack of air-conditioning will aggravate the risk for heat-related illnesses as high temperatures warm into the lower and mid-90s,” warns National Weather Service in Houston, where the heat index reached 106F (41C) yesterday and is expected to reach 105F today.
Yesterday, President Joe Biden granted acting governor Patrick’s request for emergency disaster declaration, approving federal resources to help with recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. All 121 affected counties will receive 75% reimbursement for debris removal.
“The greatest concern right now is the power outages and extreme heat that is impacting Texans,” read a statement from the White House. “As you all know, extreme heat kills more Americans than all the other natural disasters combined.”
Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the US, killing more people each year than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined. Children, the elderly, pregnant people, outdoor workers and people with chronic medical conditions are more vulnerable to heat stress. Power outages pose a serious risk to people who rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment such as oxygen machines and ventilators.
CenterPoint Energy, the main utility operator serving the Greater Houston area, said in a statement on Tuesday that it had restored power to more than 850,000 of 2.26 million ratepayers who lost power due to Hurricane Beryl.
At a Tuesday press conference, when asked if he was satisfied with the utility’s efforts to restore power, Patrick said, “I’ll tell you whether I’m satisfied or not when I have a full report of where their crews were when they were asked to come in, and how quickly they get power back.
“Any thought that people were surprised that the storm might come to Houston is shocking to me,” Patrick said. “No one should’ve been surprised. If Centerpoint wasn’t [ready], that’s on them.”
At least 10 people in the US died in the wake of the category 5 hurricane. Now a post-tropical storm, Beryl is making its way north, and is expected to bring severe rain, flooding, and potential tornadoes to the midwest and the north-east, according to the National Weather Service.
