Anger mounts in southeast Texas as crippling power outages and heat turn deadly
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 many 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.
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 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.”
Heat-related medical emergencies are also spiking in Houston as 90-degree temperatures blanket southeast Texas, city 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.
A family in Needville, Texas, about 40 miles southwest of Houston, gave in and bought a window A/C 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.
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 over the phone.
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.
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 I-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.
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.
CNN’s Amanda Jackson, Robert Shackelford, Joe Sutton and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
Many elderly individuals in senior care facilities are struggling without power, as they rely on electrical medical devices to remain healthy. Ian Wu, an owner of the Ella Springs assisted senior living facility in the Houston area, has been fielding concerns from families as their 85 residents remain in the dark, some without power for oxygen tanks. He mentioned that their facility is registered as a critical load customer, but there's no clarity on when their power will be restored.
As the weather continues to be brutal, with temperatures reaching potentially life-threatening levels, many senior care facilities are reliant on unreliable and noisy backup generators, causing discomfort and distress.
