1.3 million people without power in Houston due to sweltering heat following Beryl

More than 1.3 million electricity customers in the Houston area remained without power Wednesday as sweltering temperatures set in following the destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl.

While CenterPoint Energy, the area’s main power company, warned it would “take days” to restore power to everyone, Harris County officials sought to calm residents suffering from hot and humid conditions.

Beryl made landfall early Monday morning as a Category 1 hurricane, knocking down power lines, trees on homes, flooding streets, killing at least six people and leaving Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city with more than 2.3 million people, in dire conditions, authorities said.

“I know we’re all tired and frustrated. We’re hot. We’re having trouble sleeping and cooling down and we’re just completely exhausted from the storm,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at the start of a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Assessing the situation after Beryl, Hidalgo reported long lines at the few gas stations that remained open, hospitals and nursing homes without power, a decrease in food at grocery stores, widespread damage from Beryl’s 97 mph wind gusts and 13 inches of rain in some areas.

In addition to the damage caused by Beryl, a heat advisory remains in effect for the Houston area, where temperatures are expected to reach 91 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday. The National Weather Service said the heat index, which factors in low humidity, will make the Houston area feel like 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius).

“The main point here (is) I really want to encourage people not to panic. We can get through this,” Hidalgo said, adding that her home was without power.

But Paul Locke, director of local government affairs for CenterPoint Energy, could offer little comfort to the utility giant’s customers, saying, “It will be days” before power is restored to everyone.

“I can’t give you a timetable, but it won’t be tomorrow,” Locke said.

About 12,000 line workers were deployed to the field as CenterPoint continued to assess damage to its power grid Wednesday, the utility said.

When Beryl blew in Monday, a total of 2.2 million CenterPoint Energy customers lost power, or about 80% of those served by the utility, as the storm toppled power lines and trees and ripped roofs off buildings, including part of the roof of NRG Stadium, home of the NFL’s Houston Texans, officials said.

Comparing it to a severe storm in May that knocked out power to about 1 million CenterPoint Energy customers, Locke said it took 4 1/2 days to restore power to everyone following that storm.

“We’re now at 2.2 million,” Locke said.

But CenterPoint Energy’s outage map showed Wednesday that repairs had not yet begun in many areas without power and damage assessments were still underway.

Locke assured customers that the power company was working as quickly as possible to restore power, adding that many repair crew members were also without power.

“Nobody wants to sleep in a house that’s 85 degrees,” Locke said.

Compounding the problem, the Red Cross has been unable to set up shelters in Houston due to a lack of electricity, Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo also highlighted an emergency at Houston’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital early in the hurricane, saying the facility, which she described as “one of the pillars” of the city’s health care system, lost power and was unable to run its backup generator for several hours.

“It was so hot in the hospital that people’s lives were in danger,” Hidalgo said. “They had to close all but two operating rooms, which caused many emergency operations to be postponed.”

Hidalgo also said the storm shut down the Port of Houston, where much of the fuel for gas stations arrives. She added that gas stations rely on trucks to move fuel.

“Those who don’t have electricity can’t provide fuel and those who do have it see their activities limited because everyone goes there,” Hidalgo said.

She said that while some grocery stores have reported shortages of perishable items, “we are not in a situation where we are going to run out of food or where there is simply no way fuel is going to get to Harris County in the event of a major emergency.”

Houston resident Joanne Posey was among many people without power Wednesday who were collecting emergency supplies and water from a cooling station set up at LeRoy Crump Stadium in Houston.

“It’s tough, but you have to keep the faith and the sweat running down your face,” Posey told ABC Houston station KTRK as she waited in her car to pick up supplies.

Susan Balderas of Houston was among those waiting in line at a gas station, telling KTRK it was the second place she went to fill up.

“I took advantage of my lunch break to get gas, because in the area where I live there are still a lot of power outages,” Balderas said. “The gas stations are out of order. There are long lines everywhere.”

President Joe Biden on Tuesday granted a federal emergency declaration for 121 Texas counties affected by Beryl, which will expedite federal aid to the region.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is serving as governor in the absence of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is on an economic development mission to Asia. Patrick said he spoke to Biden on Tuesday and made a formal request for federal aid after touring the disaster areas.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Biden claimed that Texas state officials slowed down federal efforts by not filing a formal request with the administration sooner.

“I have no authority to do this without a specific request from the governor,” Biden told the Chronicle.

Patrick, a Republican, later accused Biden of making storm recovery “a political issue.”