“The first day was hot, but tolerable,” Ballesteros said in a July 11 Facebook message. “Tuesday morning [July 9], I woke up in a panic from how hot it had gotten in the house.”
Worried about her three young children, Ballesteros went to stay with family while they waited for power to return. Ballesteros was just one of more than 838,200 people in Harris County who were still waiting for power as of July 12. At its peak July 8, about 2.2 million CenterPoint customers in the Houston area were without power.
Humble Fire Department Chief David Langenberg said the city was hit pretty evenly throughout, but he noted the areas with heavier tree density were hit harder than others. Over the course of July 8-9, Langenberg said the fire department fielded 211 calls related to Hurricane Beryl.
What happened?
Hurricane Beryl initially formed as a tropical depression over the Atlantic Ocean on June 28 before strengthening into the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season the following day, according to the National Weather Service. The hurricane traveled through the Gulf of Mexico before turning northeast and making landfall for the third time July 8 as a Category 1 hurricane near Matagorda.
In Harris County, the highest wind speeds were recorded near the University of Houston with gusts reaching as high as 89 mph on July 8, according to the NWS. According to data provided by The Citizen Weather Observer Program—a public-private partnership that aggregates storm data—wind speeds reached as high as 41 mph in Humble.Additionally, Beryl dropped as much as 8.4 inches of rain in Humble, around 4.4 inches in Kingwood and as much as 14.9 inches in some areas in Harris County, per NWS data.The impact
At least eight people have died in Texas as a result of Hurricane Beryl, including seven in the Greater Houston area, as of July 9, local emergency management and state officials said.
“Our hearts grieve for all the Texans impacted by Hurricane Beryl, including our fellow Texans who tragically lost their lives or were injured,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement July 9.
In a July 9 news conference, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said more than 2.2 million residents in the Greater Houston area were still without power after the storm toppled 10 power transmission lines in addition to a bevy of trees and power distribution lines throughout the area.
“While we tracked the projected path, intensity and timing for Hurricane Beryl closely for many days, this storm proved the unpredictability of hurricanes as it delivered a powerful blow across our service territory and impacted a lot of lives,” said Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president for CenterPoint Energy.Internet and phone service was interrupted by the storm as well. Data provided by Comcast showed around 420,000 Xfinity and Comcast business customers’ service had been temporarily interrupted by Beryl’s impact on southeast Texas as of July 8. Officials from AT&T said July 8 that major network facilities were online, with some running on backup power; however, customers in affected areas were experiencing service interruptions due to storm damage and commercial power outages.
What’s next
Multiple storms have battered the Houston area since April, leaving millions of customers without power for days. Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, said state agencies will work with local utility companies to strengthen infrastructure against future disasters.
“I look at every one of these storms as a chance for us to review what we’ve done and try to get better at our preparation, our response,” he said.
Tom Overbye, who serves as the director of Texas A&M University’s Smart Grid Center, said there will be an investigation with the PUC to figure out what went wrong.
“When we build distribution circuits, there’s standards. One of the standards is the distribution line should withstand 110 mph wind when I don’t think Beryl had wind at that speed. That surely will be an issue that the investigations will come look and say ‘Why did so many people lose electricity?’” he said.
On July 8, President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for Texas that will provide federal assistance for debris removal and emergency protective measures, according to a July 9 news release from the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
The emergency declaration will grant 75% reimbursement for debris cleanup for affected counties, TDEM Chief Nim Kidd said during a July 9 news conference.
“Our community has been battered over the past few months, and this [declaration] is a big ray of hope for us,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a July 9 post on Facebook.
Residents who sustained damage from the storm can report damage through the Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool, by visiting https://damage.tdem.texas.gov.
