Pressure mounted Wednesday on Houston’s power utility as millions of residents still had no power nearly three days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, amid questions over how a city that is all too familiar with destructive weather was unable to better withstand a Category 1 storm.
With frustration growing as people searched for places to cool off, fuel up and grab a bite to eat, a CenterPoint Energy executive faced a barrage from city leaders who wanted to know it was taking so long to get the lights back on again.
CenterPoint “needs to a do a better job” restoring power, Mayor John Whitmire said. “That’s the consensus of Houstonians. That’s mine.”
Beryl came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest type, but has has been blamed for at least seven U.S. deaths — one in Louisiana and six in Texas. Earlier, 11 died in the Caribbean.
Over a million Texas homes and businesses are without power days after Beryl made landfall in the Lone Star State.
Beryl passed through Texas on Monday and as of 5:50 a.m. CT Wednesday, 1.7 million Texas homes and businesses remain without power, according to poweroutage.us.
Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday morning. It then traveled across the eastern part of the state before dissipating to a tropical storm and continuing its path towards Arkansas.
The number of people without power is lower than on Monday when 2.7 million people were reported to be without power.
