Nearly 1 million in Texas still without power 5 days after Hurricane Beryl
- Meteorologists have raised their forecast for the severity of this year’s hurricanes and called Beryl a harbinger of what may be a very active season
About a million homes and businesses in Texas remained without power on Friday, five days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, with fierce winds and rain that knocked down trees and electricity infrastructure.
CenterPoint Energy, the largest power provider in Texas, said about 870,000 of its customers remained affected. It has restored power for about 1.4 million customers in the days since Beryl, according to its website.
Frustrations mounted among residents as temperatures and humidity in Houston rose and the Heat Index topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). Some businesses remained closed due to a lack of power, while residents were forced to discard hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries.
“The recent hurricane was only a Category 1. We will likely face more hurricanes, and they could be stronger,” Soonkack Kook, founder of a coffee shop in Midtown Houston, said in an Instagram post.
“Are we going to have the same problems? Will the company in charge of repairing the country be ready this time?”
Meteorologists at Colorado State University this week raised their forecast for the severity of the 2024 hurricanes and called Beryl a harbinger of what could be a very active season.