Environment
BY WESLEY GARDNER, EMILY LINCKE & AUBREY VOGEL CONTRIBUTIONS BY JOVANNA AGUILAR, MELISSA ENAJE, VANESSA HOLT, DANICA LLOYD, JESSICA SHORTEN & HALEY VELASCO
Entities respond to Hurricane Beryl
Beryl by the numbers
18 people in Texas died as a result of Hurricane Beryl, as of July 30 reports.
distribution lines throughout the area. In the seven ZIP codes that make up Com- munity Impact ’s Cy-Fair coverage area, 121,613 CenterPoint customers were without power at the peak of the outages. Other eects of the storm included: • Loss of internet service for around 420,000 Xnity and Comcast customers • Lack of phone service • Gasoline, propane and food shortages • Excess debris from fallen trees, limbs and fences In addition, at least 18 people have died as a result of Beryl, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. “Our hearts grieve for all the Texans impacted
As the Greater Houston area recovers from the eects of Hurricane Beryl, local entities are working to restore communities back to prehurricane status. On July 8, Category 1 Hurricane Beryl brought high winds and rainfall to Houston, leaving trees scattered, rising oodwater and 2.2 million CenterPoint Energy customers without power. The storm also stripped resources as residents scrambled to nd food and gas. In response to widespread damages, Harris County issued a disaster declaration. Addition- ally, President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for Texas on July 8 to provide federal assistance for debris removal and emer- gency protective measures, according to a July 9 news release from the Texas Division of Emer- gency Management. Harris County Precinct
10 power transmission lines were downed during the storm in the Greater Houston area.
4,400 homes damaged in Harris County and 50% Houston-area trees aected by winds 2.2M CenterPoint customers in the Greater Houston area were left without power on July 8. $28B-$32B is the preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Beryl in the U.S.
Historical peak wind gusts Cypress area George Bush
Intercontinental Airport
73 mph
Hurricane Beryl (July 8) Derecho (May 16-17) Isolated thunderstorm (June 2023) Hurricane Harvey (August 2017) Hurricane Ike (September 2008)
83 mph
by Hurricane Beryl, including our fellow Texans who tragically lost their lives or were injured,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a state- ment July 9. Looking ahead Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, said state agencies will work with local utility
62 mph
“I take personal accountability for the areas where we fell short of customers’ expectations. ... While we cannot erase the frustrations and diculties so many of our customers endured, I and my entire leadership team will not make excuses.” JASON WELLS, CENTERPOINT ENERGY CEO
3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey on July 15 said his precinct is still recov- ering from the debris after May’s derecho, or wind storm. “There’s still derecho debris on the streets in Harris County, so that needs to be understood.
91 mph
41 mph
82 mph
Historical two-day rainfall averages
Cypress area Harris County
And two, this storm, Beryl, put a lot more debris, a lot more spread out throughout the
9.7 in.
Hurricane Beryl (July 8)
12 in.
companies to strengthen infrastructure. At a July 15 press conference, Gleeson announced an investigation into CenterPoint regarding the company’s response during Beryl. CenterPoint executives laid out a resiliency and communications plan July 25 with a focus on: • Resiliency investments that use predic- tive modeling to deploy crews for work assignments; targeting more line miles with higher-risk vegetation; hardening nearly 350 distribution line miles to the latest extreme wind standards of 110 mph • Strengthened partnerships, including increasing backup emergency generators and engaging with local emergency management o¤ces for response capabilities for critical facilities and infrastructure • Customer communications, including launching a new cloud-based outage tracker on Aug. 1, and incorporating daily press briengs, press releases and social media to inform customers during major storms
county,” he said. What happened?
May rainfall event (May 1-2)
12.7 in.
Hurricane Beryl initially formed as a tropical depression over the Atlantic Ocean on June 28 before strengthening into the rst hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season the fol- lowing 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. According to NWS data, wind speeds reached as high as 73 mph in Cypress. Additionally, Beryl dropped 9.7 inches of rain in the Cypress area. The impact In a July 9 news conference, Lt. Gov. Dan Pat- rick 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
Hurricane Harvey (August 2017)
35.2 in.
Hurricane Ike (September 2008)
15.5 in.
Historical peak power outages in the Greater Houston area Hurricane Beryl (July 8)
2.2M
Derecho (May 16-17)
930,000
Outages during Harvey totaled 1M
Hurricane Ike (September 2008) Hurricane Harvey (August 2017)
270,000
2.2M
SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY, CITY OF HOUSTON, CENTERPOINT ENERGY, ACCUWEATHER, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT COMMUNITY IMPACT
21
CYFAIR EDITION
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