Hundreds of thousands of people in southeastern Texas are still without power, one week after Hurricane Beryl caused devastation on its path through the state.
Some 288,000 energy customers were in the dark and Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, leaving many without air conditioning as a persistent heat wave brings temperature of up to 93 degrees.
More than 119 million were under extreme heat warnings Monday, with the National Weather Service forecasting temperatures of 100 degrees or higher in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.
CenterPoint Energy, the main electricity supplier in the Greater Houston area, says it has reconnected almost 2 million people — about 90% of the those affected — since Beryl brought down scores of power lines and brought trees crashing into homes.
Gov. Greg Abbott used a news conference Sunday to demand that the company explains how it is improving its hurricane preparation plans before the end of the month.
“The failure of power companies to provide power to their customers is completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that while the state’s first priority is to preserve life, the lack of power was a “life-based issue.”
Abbott said CenterPoint had until July 31 to provide his office with “specific actions to address power outages and reduce the possibility that power will be lost during a severe weather event.” This includes details on how “vegetation” will be removed that threatens power lines.
Failure to do so, he said, could result in an executive order “geared to keep the power on.”
Abbott also wrote to the Public Utility Commission of Texas directing it to launch an investigation in why it has taken so long to reconnect households.
“It is unacceptable that millions of Texans in the Greater Houston area have been (or were) left without electricity for multiple days,” he wrote.
“It is imperative we investigate how and why some Texas utilities were unable to restore power for days following a Category 1 Hurricane,” he continued.
In response, CenterPoint said in a statement: “Our top priority is restoring power to the remaining impacted customers as safely and quickly as possible.”
The company said its crews were working around the clock over the weekend to restore connections and were working in areas with “significant structural damage.” CenterPoint added that it has “heard and understood” customers’ frustrations.
CenterPoint also pointed out that initial forecasts said Beryl would miss Houston and when this changed it deployed 3,000 staff to respond to any damage.
On Saturday, Abbott added 17 counties to a FEMA individual assistance program, allowing anyone whose home or business has been damaged to apply for financial help.
In total, eight people in Harris County, which includes Houston, are known to have died as a direct result of Hurricane Beryl, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
