Houston residents suffocate after Beryl, more than 1.7 million still without power

HOUSTON — The return of scorching heat to the Houston area has added to the misery of those still without power after Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas and left residents searching for places to cool off and refuel as prolonged outages strained one of the nation’s largest cities.

According to PowerOutage.us, more than 1.7 million homes and businesses were still without power Tuesday night, down from more than 2.7 million on Monday. As frustration mounted, state officials wondered whether the power company that covers much of the region had adequately prepared.

Nearly 36 hours after Beryl’s landfall, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said a sports and event complex would be used to temporarily house up to 250 hospital patients who are awaiting discharge but cannot be released to homes without power.

People were doing the best they could.

“We can handle it, but not the kids,” Walter Perez said as he arrived at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston, which was serving as a refreshment center and handing out 40-packs of water.

Perez said his wife, 3-year-old son, 3-week-old daughter and father-in-law left their apartment after a night he described as “bad, bad, bad, bad.”

An executive with CenterPoint Energy, which covers much of the Houston area, defended the company’s preparedness and response.

“From my perspective, to see a storm come through at 3 p.m., to see these crews come in late in the evening and have everything ready by 5 a.m. to go out and start working is pretty impressive because we’re talking about thousands of crews,” Brad Tutunjian, vice president of regulatory policy at CenterPoint Energy, said during a press briefing.

Maximum temperatures in the Houston area climbed to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius) Tuesday, with humidity making the feeling of heat even more intense. Similar heat and humidity were expected Wednesday. The National Weather Service described the conditions as potentially dangerous given the lack of electricity and air conditioning.

Beryl, which made landfall early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, has been blamed for at least seven deaths in the United States – one in Louisiana and six in Texas – and at least 11 in the Caribbean.

Nim Kidd, head of the state’s Division of Emergency Management, stressed that restoring power is the top priority.

Patrick, who is serving as acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country, said nursing homes and assisted living facilities are the top priority. Sixteen hospitals were running on generators as of Tuesday morning, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

For many Houston-area residents, it was a miserable repeat after May storms killed eight people and left nearly a million without power amid flooded streets.

On Tuesday, customers lined up to eat at KFC, Jack in the Box and Denny’s. Dwight Yell took a disabled neighbor who had no electricity to Denny’s to get him food.

He complained that city and state officials failed to adequately warn residents of a storm that was initially expected to make landfall much further down the coast: “They didn’t give us enough warning, where we might be able to get gas or be prepared to leave town if the lights went out.”

Robin Taylor, who got takeout from Denny’s, has been living in a hotel since her home was damaged by the May storms. When Beryl hit, her hotel room flooded.

“No wifi, no electricity, and it’s hot outside,” Taylor said. “People are going to die from this heat in their homes.”

Kyuta Allen took his family to a Houston community center to relax and use the internet.

“During the day you can keep the doors open, but at night you have to barricade and lock them, locking yourself in like a sauna,” she said.

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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed.