Houston community groups work to feed and cool a city battered by repeated storms

HOUSTON — The deafening hum of a generator was a welcome sound Thursday night at a Houston independent living facility where dozens of seniors lost power in the wake of Hurricane Beryl.

Joe and Terri Hackl, who had been using the backup power source after delivering hundreds of meals throughout the day, estimate they spent at least 18 hours a day this week filling service gaps in the wind-torn city.

The couple are part of a volunteer network called CrowdSource Rescue, which was created during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to connect first responders with people in need.

The community’s efforts brought relief in the form of fresh food and fresh air to millions of people who suffered from power outages this week. Beryl knocked out power in one of the nation’s largest cities, putting pressure on utility CenterPoint Energy as outages continued days after the Category 1 storm made landfall.

While nonprofits and aid organizations have honed their disaster relief services in a city frequently battered by severe weather, some are now stretched thin by repeated deadly events. A storm in May already strained food and energy supplies, with hurricane-force winds also knocking out power.

It’s been a challenge for CrowdSource Rescue to allocate generators with such a great need, said Executive Director Matthew Marchetti.

The organization has only 30, down from 300 it purchased after money poured in during Texas’ record winter freeze in 2021. Multiple storms since then have depleted resources, and donations are harder to come by, he said.

“The campaign slogan is ‘Houston Strong,’” he said. “I’d like to be ‘Houston Normal’ for a while.”

It’s hard to get people back on their feet when shocks come frequently, said Ben Hirsch, co-director of West Street Recovery. The environmental justice organization repairs homes and manages federal aid for families in some of the most vulnerable areas of northeast Houston.

Government money to repair damage from the May storm has only just arrived, and people haven’t had time to recover yet. Mutual aid can only do so much to address systemic barriers to resilience, Hirsch said.

“Mutual aid is very effective in distributing hot meals and cleaning homes,” he said. “But we need to bury our power lines and build huge flood protection infrastructure.”

Experts predict that unprecedented ocean heat will help make this Atlantic hurricane season one of the busiest on record and that climate change will intensify the most powerful hurricanes.

Concerned about the early arrival of destructive hurricanes, Sally Ray, director of domestic funds at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, said donors should “support these communities more strategically over the long term to better prepare them for what might come next.”

In times of crisis, pre-established community connections become especially important for nonprofits, which often have the deepest ties to some of the hardest-hit communities, Ray said.

That includes groups like Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. About six dozen drivers deliver 2,000 hot meals a day through its Meals on Wheels program, caring for homebound residents, said operations manager Matthew Wright.

The nonprofit also provides each person with five shelf-stable meals in June, ahead of hurricane season. Beryl arrived so early that Meals on Wheels plans to deliver another one soon.

Annie Jones, 62, received an emergency kit before the weekend. No longer working after breaking her hip, the longtime Houston resident said she had just repaired wind damage to her roof in May.

“I know it happens,” she said of the frequent storms. “But you don’t get used to it. It’s always devastating.”

The back-to-back extreme weather events have even the most established nonprofits worried. The Houston Food Bank, which serves 18 counties in Southeast Texas through more than 1,600 community partners, is trying to collect more than 40 tractor-trailers of relief supplies before hurricane season begins in June, said Brian Greene, the organization’s president.

But the May storm hit while they were still stocking up, forcing them to pick up boxes from other food banks as far away as Minnesota and Tennessee. That’s possible when there’s only one extreme weather event hitting the country. But he said the national Feeding America network is concerned about the increased prevalence and severity of such scenarios.

A “disaster-level volume of supplies” – more than 400,000 pounds (181,400 kilograms) – was moved Wednesday, Greene said, and he doesn’t want to let down Houston residents who rely on that production.

“I’m concerned that our ability to meet those expectations, if it happens more frequently, is going to be really difficult,” Greene said.

The Hackls didn’t even stop to clean up the debris that littered their yard before returning to deliver food, drinks, ice and cleaning supplies Friday.

Before leaving the independent living center the day before, Terri Hackl had offered some advice on what to do with the extra supplies the staff had purchased.

“Keep it,” she said. “I can almost guarantee there will be more storms this year.”

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Glenn Gamboa contributed reporting.

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