Anger over power outages boils as Beryl leaves Houston reeling

Washington Post ^ | 07/12/2024 | Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Evan Halper and Scott Dance

[ChicagoConservative27]

HOUSTON — Half a million Texans are expected to suffer through sweltering heat with no electricity into early next week after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power throughout the Houston area Monday, generating anger at the region’s large utility for failing to defend the grid from a predictable summer storm.

Food is spoiling in dormant refrigerators days after the Category 1 hurricane tore through power lines and utility poles. Hospitals are swarming with patients struggling with heat stroke. Businesses can’t function as residents are ordered to stay home, and many residents faced at least three or four more days of continued suffering.

“We don’t have anything to eat,” said Nelsey Alvarez, 34, a single mother from Honduras who said she had never faced such a power crisis in her native country, where hurricanes are common. “When they lose power, they restore it the same day.”

[Tall Wall Texan]

Harris County Texas (Houston) is by far the most populous county in the State of Texas. Over 5 million people live in Harris County. That fact, plus Houston’s rapid and continuous growth since 1950 make it a difficult to keep up with the pace of needed infrastructure improvements. Houston metro area has grown from 500,000 people in 1950 t0 7,000,000 people today. I lived in Houston from 1982 to 1989 and enjoyed my time there. The proximity to the Gulf is both a blessing and a curse. Anyone living in the region should be aware of the need to take appropriate precautions for the arrival of hurricanes: a frequent natural event (look up Hurricane Harvey in 2017, 60 inches of rain ... damage much worse than Beryl).

[EVO X]

No perfect place to live as far as I know.

I agree. Up north it is ice storms, derechos and large tornados that cause wide scale damage.