Houston Trojans Recover From Hurricane Beryl – Annenberg Media

Nearly 200,000 homes were without power Tuesday after Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Houston area last week. The tropical storm made landfall on the morning of July 8, flooding roads and highways and knocking down power lines.

Alex Buettgen, a third-year communications and real estate development student, returned home from a family vacation to find uprooted trees all over his neighborhood, branches and debris littering every lawn.

Although the power came back to her house, her Wi-Fi was out for several days, preventing her from easily accessing her WRIT340 online course.

“My dad does his conference calls using their neighbor’s Wi-Fi. I use my hotspot to do my classes. My brother uses his hotspot to do his classes,” Buettgen said. “It’s really all over the place right now about it, but I’m lucky we have power.”

Buettgen said the city was a “disaster.”

“There was no working traffic light, only one working gas station, and the line to get in went around the block,” Buettgen said.

He described downed power lines, toppled billboards and “countless” destroyed trees.

Worse still, Buettgen said, no electricity means no shelter from the “scorching heat.”

“Yesterday it was 98 degrees Fahrenheit, with all that humidity that comes with a hurricane. It feels like 110 degrees Fahrenheit and there’s no way to cool down,” Buettgen said on July 10.

Today, Houston residents fear what could happen to their homes and their way of life when hurricane season reaches its peak in early fall.

“When September comes around, when the big storms start coming, what’s going to happen? Is our power grid going to collapse again?” Buettgen wonders.

Those questions prompted the Texas Public Utilities Commission to launch an investigation Monday into Houston-based utility CenterPoint Energy, which manages electricity for most of the affected homes.

The commission criticized CenterPoint for its lack of preparedness, tree maintenance and general communication with customers. Commission Chairman Thomas Gleeson said at a July 15 news conference that the company needs to address those concerns as hurricane season approaches.

Since the storm hit more than a week ago, more than 2 million homes have had their electricity restored.

CenterPoint said it expects to restore power to 98% of affected homes by the end of the day Wednesday.

Buettgen said that moment has brought forth a community of neighbors supporting their neighbors in Houston.

“If you have the ability to help people, help them. You never know where a helping hand can take you,” Buettgen said.