Anger mounts in southeast Texas as crippling power outages and heat turn deadly
Frustrations are mounting across southeast Texas as residents enter a fourth day of crippling power outages and heat, a combination that has proven dangerous as some struggle to access food, gas and medical care.
It’s been at least four days since Hurricane Beryl struck Texas. More than a million people in the Houston area still have no power with downed trees and power lines still scattered everywhere.
(CNN) — Frustrations are mounting across southeast Texas as residents enter a fourth day of crippling power outages and heat, a combination that has proven dangerous – and at times deadly – as some struggle to access food, gas and medical care.
More than 1.3 million homes and businesses across the region are still without power after Beryl slammed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, leaving at least 11 people dead across Texas and Louisiana.
Many residents are sheltering with friends or family who still have power, but some can’t afford to leave their homes, Houston City Councilman Julian Ramirez told CNN. And while countless families have lost food in their warming fridges, many stores are still closed, leaving government offices, food banks, and other public services scrambling to distribute food to underserved areas, he said.
“Those folks have no choice but to stay home and tough it out,” he said.
Marguerite Thomas lights candles at dusk after losing electricity due to Hurricane Beryl in Surfside Beach, Texas. (Photo credit: Adrees Latif/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
As residents desperately try to cool their homes with generators, carbon monoxide poisoning has become a serious concern. At least two people have died in Harris County from carbon monoxide poisoning and fire departments have received more than 200 carbon monoxide poisoning calls in 24 hours, local officials said.
A 71-year-old woman died near Crystal Beach after her oxygen machine ran out of battery power and her generator shut down. While officials said the woman’s official cause of death had yet to be determined, it renewed calls for residents to check on their loved ones and neighbors.
“If you’re wondering if someone is OK if you think they have the medically necessary equipment that has a battery that needs to be charged, don’t risk it,” Texas state Sen. Mayes Middleton said. “And call 911, please.”
Traffic is directed around a downed power line in Houston, Texas, on July 9. (Photo credit: Traffic is directed around a downed power line in Houston, Texas, on July 9.)
Heat-related medical emergencies are also spiking in Houston as 90-degree temperatures blanket southeast Texas, Fire Chief Samuel Peña said.
The heat index – a measurement of how the body feels under both heat and humidity – could reach 106 degrees in some areas, a life-threatening scenario for people without adequate cooling.
The dangerous heat hasn’t been limited to Texas. At least 28 heat-related deaths in the West have been reported since July 1, as a record-breaking heat wave beats down on states including California, Oregon and Arizona.
In Texas, a family in Needville, about 40 miles southwest of Houston, gave in and bought a window air conditioning unit on Wednesday after three days of sweltering heat. Jennifer Purswell said she has plugged the unit into a generator and is using plastic sheets draped over doorways to trap cool air in the living room.
Essential operations such as hospitals and senior living homes have been prioritizing powering medically necessary medical equipment. Some Houston hospitals are at risk of overcrowding as they cannot release patients to homes without power, prompting city officials to organize overflow beds in an indoor sports stadium, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Tuesday.
Nine fire stations in Houston have closed and relocated because they did not have generators, Peña said, even as emergency calls flood in.
Animal rescue teams and pet owners have also been working overtime to protect fuzzy companions. Pug Hearts Houston owner Cindy Rothermel said she heard of pug owners sitting in their cars with the A/C running to cool the dogs down in “intolerable” heat.
Texans losing patience with utility company
As miserable conditions persist, Houston area residents are growing increasingly frustrated with CenterPoint Energy, the city’s primary utility company that is responsible for restoring the vast majority of outages.
“Almost universally people have lost patience with CenterPoint,” City Councilman Ramirez told CNN.
Beryl’s impact left more than 2.2 million customers without electricity on Monday. By Wednesday night, the utility said it had restored power to 1.1 million customers and hoped to have an additional 400,000 restored by Friday and 350,000 more by Sunday.
Cars line up for supply distribution at Woodforest Bank Stadium in Shenandoah, Texas, on July 10. (Photo credit: Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
But anger is spreading among residents who say that the utility should have been more prepared for the storm.
“CenterPoint can’t seem to tell us how long this is going to last. The first outage we experienced (in May), I was out of power four to five days, and I think that was pretty common,” Ramirez said. “This one, who knows? Could be longer. They’re not telling us.”
Noting the widespread anger, Ramirez also pointed out new street art in Houston – a graffiti tag on Interstate 10 that says “Centerpointle$$.”
The Harris County Republican Party criticized CenterPoint in a social media post for its “seemingly lack of preparedness.”
“CenterPoint is the number one provider of power for Harris County residents and must do better. They owe us answers,” the post read.
Across social media, residents have criticized CenterPoint’s power outage map, saying there are inaccuracies on the map where it says the power is restored but it’s not.
The City Council grilled a CenterPoint executive on Wednesday, asking why the company hasn’t done more to prepare for storms.
Brad Tutunjian, CenterPoint vice president of electric distribution and power delivery, said they’ve never seen an incident to this magnitude and described it as the “largest outage in our history.”
“We have made solid progress and exceeded the number of customer restorations following Hurricane Ike, but we have a lot of important work ahead, especially in the hardest-hit areas where the work will be more complex and time-consuming,” a utility spokesperson said.
American Red Cross workers prepare cots in Houston, Texas, on July 10. (Photo credit: Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
Elder care facilities struggle without power
Senior care facilities and residents who rely on electric medical devices are particularly at risk as power outages stretch through at least the end of the week.
Ian Wu, an owner of the Ella Springs assisted senior living facility in the Houston area, said he has been fielding concerns from families as his 85 residents remain in the dark – some without power for oxygen machines.
“Right now, we’re trying to keep our generators up to power the essential stuff like for cooking and oxygen tanks,” Wu told CNN affiliate KTRK.
Wu said that the facility is registered as a critical load customer for whom service is considered crucial, but he has no clarity on when their power will be restored.
“I try to be understanding because I know there’s a million other people feeling the same way,” Wu told KTRK. “But a little bit acknowledging we’re a high-priority place would be nice.”
Patricia Romano, who moved her 92-year-old mother to her home, called the situation “ridiculous.”
“Don’t we owe it to our people who can’t take care of themselves to take care of them?” Romano said to the affiliate.
Volunteers hand out water at a distribution station in Houston, Texas, on July 11. (Photo credit: Maria Lysaker/AP via CNN Newsource)
Storm brings tornadoes, flooding to Northeast
The National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York, confirmed two tornadoes in the area Wednesday, as the remnants of Beryl tracked across the state.
The local weather service issued nine tornado warnings Wednesday –- the most it has ever put out in a single day.
Flash flood warnings were in effect Thursday morning from northern New York to central Maine, with flash flooding already underway in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Flood watches remain for northern New York and much of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine until Thursday afternoon – but as the system continues to move east-northeast, the bulk of the storm’s impacts are expected to be over for most of New England.
CNN’s Amanda Jackson, Robert Shackelford, Joe Sutton and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
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