Texans heading into a second week without electricity are battling heat and frustration
"Texans heading into a second week without electricity are battling heat, frustration and boredom" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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CHANNELVIEW — Juan Piñón’s long-sleeve black shirt and forest green pants were soaked. He used a shovel to scrape concrete mix out of a blue wheelbarrow and throw it on the ground.
The 43-year-old construction worker was hard at work rebuilding part of a fence knocked out by Hurricane Beryl, which also sent his family’s trampoline crashing into his children’s yard playground, cracking the slide.
Sunday was the family’s seventh day without power at their home on the east side of Houston in Harris County, and the 90-degree heat and humidity didn't let them forget. His family uses a generator to power the living room air conditioner, where they sleep to stay cool. They eat fast food and chopped hot dogs. They charge their phones in the car. The devices overheat at times because of the weather.
“It's very hot, and it's very boring,” said Victor, Piñón’s 12-year-old son, who wishes he were playing Call of Duty and Minecraft with his buddies. “There’s nothing to do, you just have to sit there.”
The Piñones are among the hundreds of thousands of Texans entering a second week without power as temperatures remain in the 90s and the heat index nears triple digits. Hurricane Beryl landed on the Gulf Coast a week ago and swept through East Texas, knocking down trees and power lines with gusts over 80 mph. The storm maintained hurricane-level strength as it plowed through Houston, knocking out power for almost 3 million people.
[“Get back up and go”: CenterPoint linemen take on a broken grid as Houstonians seethe]
CenterPoint Energy, the Houston-area utility that maintains the infrastructure for more than 2.8 million customers across Texas, said it has been restoring power faster than in recent storms. But the company has yet to provide an estimate for when about 226,000 customers will get their power back.
“We’re struggling,” said Rodolfo Peña, a 51-year-old truck driver who has lived in the Channelview neighborhood for the last 25 years.
His home is located closest to a downed tree and power line, which was hanging Sunday like a necklace with a white barrel serving as a roadblock underneath it. He said he hasn’t received any clarity from CenterPoint on when they are going to fix it.
A power line damaged by a fallen tree leans over the road on Sunday in the Channelview neighborhood. Several cars driving down the road turned around, some maneuvered under the hazard and some powered through, snagging the live wire on the way. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune
His family relies on their new generator to power a small air conditioner and a freezer. Before that, they used a welding machine as a generator. They cook food the same day they buy it because they can’t store anything in the refrigerator. They sweat at night when they sleep and even after taking cold showers. Their trash is not being picked up on schedule, forcing them to dump it elsewhere.
“It’s really frustrating to be in this situation,” said Peña’s 29-year-old daughter Esther, a Crosby resident who said she also doesn’t have power. Her 1-year-old son, Adrian, was also outside the family’s house Sunday, sweat dripping down his face.
Peña has decided to stay put to take care of his dog and chickens. He also wants to be home when CenterPoint finally shows up.
“It's like they’re just leaving me for last,” he said.
The vast majority of Texans still without power are CenterPoint customers in Harris County, the state’s most populous. Attacks on CenterPoint intensified over the weekend from angry customers. State officials said CenterPoint may not be equipped to deliver power to such a wide swath of Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday made his first public appearance since returning from an economic development trip in Southeast Asia and called for an investigation into CenterPoint’s response to the storm.
“The failure of power companies to provide power to their customers is completely unacceptable,” he told reporters during a Sunday press conference.
CenterPoint appears to be restoring power at a faster pace than they have during previous storms. CenterPoint said on Sunday that 90% of impacted customers would have their power back before Tuesday. But people without power are tired and frustrated, especially because the company’s outage tracker is still down. A new map the company released following Beryl is inaccurate, customers say.
For some in Harris County, life without power after an extreme weather event has become all too familiar.
“This is the hood,” said Odis Ward, a 52-year-old motel porter from a neighborhood in Houston’s Fifth Ward. “We’re used to our lights getting cut off. We’re going to survive with them, we’re going to survive without them.”
Odis Ward, left, watches neighbors drain water from their car door in the Fifth Ward neighborhood of Houston. Water had been trapped inside due to the rain and flooding caused by Hurricane Beryl. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune
On Friday, Ward’s area was mostly quiet. Dismembered trees and branches were scattered across the sidewalk. Dogs ran around, licking up puddles of rainwater. Residents hung out outside, talking outside their homes or on their porches
When the going gets tough, Ward said, they do what they have to do. Last week, that meant cracking doors open, sliding windows up and sleeping outside when temperatures became unbearable. Neighbors lit up their barbecue pits during the week to heat up beans, chicken, cornbread and rice.
Vickie Williams listens to conversation on Friday, July 12, 2024, at the Fifth Ward in Houston, Tx. As a person with diabetes, Williams had a difficult time regulating her blood sugar during the power outages. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune
Vickie Williams points out the gender of each of her puppies on Friday, July 12, 2024, at the Fifth Ward in Houston, Tx. Two pups of the litter had already been adopted, and the rest weathered the storm with Williams inside of her home. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune
First: Vickie Williams, a resident of Fifth Ward, said she had a difficult time managing her diabetes during the power outages. Last: Williams shows her puppies, which weathered the storm with her during Hurricane Beryl. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune
Who does Ward think is responsible for what Houstonians are enduring? “The city!” he said in unison with his friends Vickie Williams, 70, and Wayne Bias, 51. This was nothing new for them. Thousands of Houstonians lost power in May when a derecho storm swept through the region.
Channelview resident Larry Waters had his power flicker back Friday, but he spent the day painting classrooms and hallways at a school in Fifth Ward. When the hurricane knocked his power out, the 49-year-old’s message to his wife and children was straightforward: “It’s time to switch to survival mode,” he said.
He didn’t want to spend hours waiting in line to purchase chicken at some restaurant or to fill up his gas tank. With $200 worth of groceries ruined by the power outage, his family boiled water using a propane tank to cook up noodles.
“It's Mother Nature, man. You can’t control it,” said Waters, whose hands had black paint splattered on them from work. “We all go through it day by day. It gets worse, but then it's going to get better.”
Thelma Harris, 80, also dealt with the power outage in Fifth Ward. On Friday, she took some time to enjoy a Crazy Cowboy American Lager on the front porch — with the lights back on inside.
Harris answered succinctly when sharing what she had been doing since the power returned.
“Thanking God,” she said.
Gabriel Leal and his wife Olga Minez grill burgers on Sunday evening in the Aldine neighborhood of Harris County. Almost a week after Hurricane Beryl hit Houston, the couple and their five children were still without power and had been using a generator to make the power outage more manageable. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune
On the coast in Sargent, near where Beryl first made landfall one week ago, Bob Howard and his wife offered free rooms to displaced families and first responders from out of town at the Fish Tail Inn, a seven-room hotel the couple bought in 2021 in pursuit of a dream to move down to the coast. On Friday night, they cooked enough spaghetti to feed about 200 people.
“We will serve until we run out,” the Inn posted in a Facebook invitation.
Howard also serves as a trustee on the tiny volunteer fire department, whose nine firefighters — some in old suits and others in boots that don’t fit — continued responding to calls last week while also helping distribute food, water and ice, he said.
“It’s been a grind but you know what? Even with all the devastation, there’s a lot of smiles on people’s faces and a sort of ‘bunker down’ mentality,” he said.
Howard anticipated the city would next need supplies and resources to clean up the storm’s wreck.
The electricity that returned to most of the city Saturday will help, too.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/15/texans-power-outages-hurricane-beryl/.
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