Millions of people in Texas are still without power after then-Hurricane Beryl came ashore on the Texas Gulf Coast Monday morning as a Category 1 Hurricane.
Beryl created one of the largest power outages ever for CenterPoint Energy, which serves the city. The scale of the outages is frustrating millions of customers who are also dealing with oppressive hot temperatures. Some are now questioning if the company could have done more to prepare for the storm.
Cooling centers and other emergency measures could be needed for weeks if power to run air conditioning isn’t restored.
In Houston, those centers are already providing relief for many of the roughly 1.5 million people without power at the moment.
“It’s a miserable situation,” said Acting Texas Gov. Dan Patrick. “And you need to know that we care about that, we’re working on that, and there is hope that we’ll move through this as quickly as we can.”
“People across the country care about what’s happening here,” said Texas Rep. Lizzie Fletcher.
Priyanka Johri runs a network of assisted living homes. One of them has no power or water, so she’s shifted residents to the facility where she has back-up generators.
She waited in line for hours to get gas to power those generators.
“There’s no time to sleep,” said Johri. “When I do get time to lie down, my brain is working trying to figure out what resources I need for the humans and what resources I need for the animals.”
Johri also cares for 32 senior dogs at her home — a shelter she started 20 years ago for dogs no one wanted to adopt.
“It’s their home and it’s just destroyed,” she said of the dogs. “I mean, they’re still doing well.”
Texas is sweltering in temperatures in the mid- to high 90s — but it feels like 105. While the conditions are making hurricane recovery even harder, local leaders are offering encouragement:
“Houston is at its best when the world is at its worst, and I don’t think this is any different,” said Texas State Rep. Gene Wu.
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