Houston residents hit by Hurricane Beryl face ‘hell’ without power as US city reels from rage

Although the state’s massive oil and gas industry weathered the storm, Beryl still flooded neighborhoods and roads, uprooted trees and damaged power poles and transmission lines.

By the time the hurricane cleared, seven people had died in Texas and two million customers — most of them in Houston — were without power, with half of them still waiting for power to be restored by Friday, according to poweroutage.us.

As grid operators work to restore power, hundreds of people are gathering at cooling centers or waiting in their cars to collect ice, water and fresh food.

Vance, 43, lives in Houston with his two children and cat, but has spent much of the past week sheltering in the cooling center to escape temperatures that have exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius).

“You’d be surprised how used to electricity we are, and without electricity it’s hell,” he said.

The United States has two major electrical grids: one for the eastern part of the country and one for the western part.

Each grid is connected to different energy sources, so if one state has difficulty producing electricity, it can be redirected from other regions.

However, Texas is the only state with its own autonomous power grid, which leads to regular problems.

In February 2021, a prolonged cold storm caused the power grid to collapse due to demand for heating. Natural gas lines also had problems. Dozens of residents froze to death.

In Houston, the power grid is administered by the utility company CenterPoint.

Officials and residents are wondering why the company was so slow to restore power when Beryl was only a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest designation on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

“They underestimated the impact of the storm … it appears they were not as prepared as they should have been,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at a news conference Thursday, where he announced an investigation into the power company’s response.

“I understand how frustrating it is to be without power, especially in this heat,” CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells told the Houston Chronicle.

Wells noted that the company was able to restore power to 1.1 million customers within 48 hours of the storm’s end.

But these advances offer little consolation to those without electricity, like Maria Dionisio, who was also at the cooling center.

“There is nothing left to eat, everything that was in the fridge is spoiled,” Dionisio said.

As Houston residents continue to recover, some fear an even more powerful storm this season.

“I pray to God there’s not (a hurricane) right behind this one, because if there is, we’d be in trouble,” Vance said.