Houston resident still without power

On Tuesday, Mayor John Whitmire took to the helicopter to assess the damage in the city, then called a news conference to address the biggest danger ahead, which most people believe is the loss of electricity.

Not only are local hospitals overwhelmed by patients they don’t want to send to homes without electricity, but residents are increasingly frustrated by the lack of air conditioning as temperatures soar. It doesn’t help that, for some reason, cellphone and internet access are out throughout the area. It’s unclear how people are supposed to receive the messages that are being delivered to them.

The Houston Independent School District announced it would also be closed Wednesday, another indicator of the severity of the damage that has hit the region. Superintendent Mike Miles is well-known for his belief that children are better off being in school even after severe weather events.

And then there are the scarcity of traffic lights and the propensity of some predators to come out at night.

“We didn’t anticipate the amount of power we were going to lose. And, quite frankly, the city is in the dark right now,” interim Chief Larry Satterwhite said, adding at another point: “We didn’t anticipate the magnitude of the power outage. Our number one problem was power outages, it creates dangerous situations.”

He and other officials repeated in unison that people should avoid going out on the streets, especially at night.

As the media questions after the parade of speakers, including Acting Gov. Dan Patrick, showed, the Natives are restless. Many of those questions were directed to Brad Tutenjian, vice president of electric distribution and power operations for CenterPoint Energy, who repeatedly stressed how hard they work.

It turns out that the thousands of linemen who came from other states to help Beryl didn’t start work right away because they needed to be trained. Even local CenterPoint crews weren’t able to start work until after Beryl left the immediate area, around 3 p.m. Monday. That’s understandable, but not pleasant to hear for what was originally scheduled to be a two-day period without power at most.

Tutenjiam alternated between saying CenterPoint was fully prepared for Beryl and saying the plant had taken them by surprise, both in its location and its power. So far, he said, about 650,000 customers have had their power restored, with the goal of having a total of 1 million restored by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Of course, that still leaves 1.6 million people in the region who will remain without power. In text messages and automated calls Tuesday, CenterPoint said it would focus its efforts on fire and police facilities and hospitals in the immediate term, and that everyone else could expect to wait several more days without power.

“We’re going to push CenterPoint to do everything possible,” Whitmire proclaimed.

As for the city’s preparations, which have been widely touted for their enhanced water rescue training for police and firefighters and additional rescue equipment, it was apparently only discovered in mid-Beryl that nine fire stations had no backup generators and were (?) out of service until regular power was restored.

Whitmire blamed the lack of reinforcements on the city’s previous administration (Mayor Sylvester Turner) and promised it would be fixed. “That’s what we inherited and that’s what we’re here to fix.”

The city has continued to open additional cooling centers to meet growing demand. Additionally, the problem of overcrowded hospitals will be addressed by the opening of the NRG Stadium “which will eventually have 250 beds – this good news apparently ignoring NRG’s report Tuesday that its roof was damaged during Beryl.”

Patrick said he spoke with President Biden on Tuesday and requested and received a disaster emergency declaration that would reimburse up to 75% of debris cleanup costs. He insisted there was “no delay on the part of the White House, no delay on our part: to get this declaration, despite a report from the Houston Chronicle Biden said he had been unable to reach either Abbott (who is overseas on a trade tour of Asia) or Patrick.

And while Whitmire has gone out of his way to tout what he calls unprecedented cooperation at all levels, it remains awkward that County Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Tom Ramsey attend the mayor’s news conferences while County Judge Lina Hidalgo is absent.

Meanwhile, piles of debris were everywhere, either picked up by conscientious homeowners and work crews or simply left on the side of the roads and littering properties..

Click to enlarge

And the rush for generators was at its peak at a local Lowe’s.

Photography by Gary Beaver

Apparently, fewer and fewer people are inclined to rely on CenterPoint to come to their rescue.

Lines to buy portable generators grew longer at Lowe’s, Home Depot and similar stores, and in many cases, people had to wait an hour or two to buy them. Traffic light restoration was sporadic, and their absence did not bring out the best in Houston’s drivers, who were always eager to get somewhere else. Some residents had to drive long distances into the countryside to find cell phone service, which was a major problem in the area.

Communications have also suffered. If you have no power for your TV and your cell phone and internet are down, how can you know what’s going on?

Private media company AccuWeather on Tuesday announced a preliminary estimate of damage and economic losses from Beryl across the United States at $28 billion to $32 billion (yes, with a B).