Hurricane Beryl causes at least 20 deaths in Houston area, half linked to power outages – Houston Public Media

Hurricane Beryl caused at least 20 deaths in the Houston area, and widespread power outages during and after the July 8 storm contributed to half of those deaths.

More than 2.2 million homes, schools and businesses, or about 80% of CenterPoint Energy’s customers, lost power at the height of the Category 1 hurricane, which was particularly devastating because it passed almost directly over Houston. Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power more than a week later, and there were still about 10,000 outages as of Thursday afternoon.

Six of the 13 storm-related deaths in Houston and Harris County were caused by heat exposure related to a power outage, according to information released by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Chief investigator John Florence of the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office said Thursday that power losses contributed to the three confirmed hurricane-related deaths, adding that doctors were still working to determine the causes of death for three other people who were found in homes without power.

In Matagorda County, where the hurricane made landfall before heading north through Houston, a 60-year-old Bay City man, bedridden and paralyzed from the waist down, died of heatstroke on the evening of July 8 in a home that lost power, according to county spokesman Mitch Thames.

“It’s tragic,” Thames said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”

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The death toll from Beryl in the Houston area — which the Associated Press said killed at least 11 people in the Caribbean before spreading to the Gulf of Mexico and Texas — could continue to rise after the storm.

Scott Yao, a spokesman for the Fort Bend County medical examiner’s office, said Thursday that no deaths related to the storm had been confirmed so far. The eye of the storm passed over the county, which is southwest of Houston.

“There may be, but we are still gathering information at the moment,” Yao said.

Houston Police Department

Three of the storm victims in Harris County drowned, two Houston men, including Houston Police Department employee Russell Richardson, were trapped in vehicles submerged by floodwaters. Two other Harris County residents were killed by falling trees the day of the hurricane, and two Houston men died in the days that followed after falling while trimming damaged trees.

All three storm-related deaths confirmed in Montgomery County, north of Houston, were caused by fallen trees on July 8, according to Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack. Two of the victims were apparently homeless and were in a tent in Magnolia, Mack said, and another man who died was struck by a falling oak tree while driving his tractor in the eastern part of the county.

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Mack said Richard Ross, 41, was returning home after using his tractor to help clear a nearby road.

“He was a good Samaritan,” Mack said. “He was helping neighbors clear trees out of the road so emergency responders and firefighters could get through. The storm wasn’t quite over.”

Ross was the youngest victim of the hurricane in the Houston area, according to local authorities. The other 19 people were 50 or older, and 13 of the victims were in their 60s and 70s.

Below is a list of the 20 storm-related deaths that have been confirmed by Houston-area authorities: