Effects of Hurricane Beryl in Texas

Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas on July 8, 2024, causing at least 22 deaths due to strong winds and heavy rainfall knocking over trees and causing drownings. Hurricane Beryl was also significant for causing over 2.7 million households and businesses near the Gulf Coast, primarily in the Houston metropolitan area, to suffer from prolonged power outages during high temperatures and high humidity. The post-storm power outages played a contributing factor in at least ten deaths related to excess heat or nonfunctional medical equipment, bringing significant ire towards the Houston-based utility company, CenterPoint.

Impact
Rainfall of 16.88” was measured at a point 2.7 miles NNE of Hilshire Village, while parts of the Greater Houston area received 13.55” of rain.

Storm surge at Surfside Beach reached between 3–7 ft, with several 18-wheeler trucks reported being flipped over in Freeport due to recorded wind gusts reaching up to 94 miles per hour. Several streets in Rosenberg were reported to be flooded, with great amounts of debris scattered. The greater Houston area received 10 inches of rain. A National Ocean Service station in Galveston Bay recorded sustained winds of 73 mph (117 km/h) with wind gusts of up to 82 mph (131 km/h), and with a peak gust of 97 mph in Brazoria. A USGS river level gauge at Galveston Railroad Bridge recorded a 3.6 feet increase above its highest diurnal tidal level. Strong winds tore windows and window frames out of the walls of a hotel in Galveston.

Texas declared a severe weather disaster declaration for 121 counties of its 254 counties, while the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas located in Polk County declared a state of emergency. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided federal disaster aid for 67 counties. On 10 July, nineteen shelters housing 641 occupants were set up by FEMA, while about twenty cooling centers were established to mitigate heat-related symptoms. 160 boil water notices were issued for twelve counties.

Houston's NRG Stadium suffered from roof damage, with strong winds causing a hole to form between a groove in the retractable roof. Severe weather forced George Bush Intercontinental Airport to delay 117 flights and cancel 312 flights, while William P. Hobby Airport delayed 56 flights and cancelled eight. At least one break room and one elevator were damaged during the storm at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Tornadoes
There were 16 tornadoes ranging from EF0 to EF2 in intensity were confirmed in the state; another tornado tracked out of Louisiana and into Texas. An EF1 tornado caused considerable damage southwest of Jamaica Beach while an EF2 tornado caused major damage on the west side of Jasper, injuring one person. A high-end EF1 tornado moved through the town of Timpson, causing roads to become unpassable with one person being trapped. Two EF0 tornadoes and 11 other EF1 tornadoes were also confirmed in the state; the tornado that tracked into Texas out of Louisiana was rated EF1 as well and caused an injury near Bethany, Louisiana and Texas. Two tornadoes were also reportedly spotted in Beaumont, one of which caused some roof damage, although this has not been confirmed yet.

Casualties
At least 22 people were killed in the Houston area from damages caused by Hurricane Beryl. Of these, three people were killed after being struck by falling trees and two people drowned from flood waters. One person killed by a falling tree was a 53-year-old man struck while sheltering in his home in Humble in Harris County, while 73-year-old Maria Laredo was struck and killed in her home at nearby northern Harris County. Another man was killed by a falling tree while using a tractor to remove debris off the road in New Caney. One person was killed in Southeast Houston by a fire possibly caused by a lightning strike during the storm. An elderly woman in Fort Bend County became disoriented after walking out into the storm, causing her to fall into a pool and drown. Houston Police Department Information Security Officer Russell Richardson drowned at the Houston Avenue underpass after being trapped and submerged by flood waters in his vehicle while driving to work. A 77-year-old man drowned after trying to drive over a curb on a bridge over White Oak Bayou to avoid flood waters, whose current pushed the car on its side and submerged it. Three people died in Galveston County, two from carbon monoxide poisoning while operating generators. A 71-year-old woman near Crystal Beach in the Bolivar Peninsula succumbed to a lack of oxygen due to power outages causing her oxygen machine's batteries to run out. Two more people died in Harris County due to carbon monoxide poisoning while running generators in their homes.

At least seven deaths in Texas, including six deaths in Harris County, were caused by heat illness due to power outages preventing the use of air conditioning during a severe heat wave that saw temperatures rise to over 100°F for several days following Beryl's initial impact. Three more deaths were caused by complications related to power outages, of which two in Galveston were caused by heat-exacerbated cardiovascular disease.

Power outages
More than 2.7 million households and businesses lost power as Beryl's eyewall struck Houston, striking down at least ten transmission towers and destroying or knocking over large numbers of power lines in the area. Of those, 2.2 million were customers of Houston-headquartered utility company CenterPoint, making up 80% of electricity utility customers in the Houston region. Power outages persisted for over 1.6 million households and businesses on the evening of 10 July, 1.3 million of whom received power from CenterPoint, who provided power to Houston for over 100 years. Only about 200,000 CenterPoint customers had power return after 9 July. Annual reports submitted by CenterPoint to federal regulators reported aging infrastructure that would compromise their resiliency in severe weather events, indicating another reason for the size of the power outage.

CenterPoint’s Outage Tracker was taken offline in May 2024 due to a derecho striking the Houston area, which remained down after Beryl struck and gave customers no gauge on when or where power would return. CenterPoint stated in a 7 July email that it planned to replace its Outage Tracker with “a redesigned cloud-based platform” that could take in more web traffic, while still not giving current and detailed information to customers. This caused many Houston residents to resort to using the Whataburger app's location services to indirectly determine which areas in Houston still did not have power based on if local locations were reported unavailable for service.

Impacts
The power outages and resulting lack of air conditioning significantly exacerbated the effects of hot temperatures and high humidity creating triple digit heat indexes across the greater Houston. The National Weather Service instituted a heat advisory across southeastern Texas on 9 July, warned Texans that heat indexes could reach 106 °F (41 °C) posed a significant health risk. Ford Motor reported a 1,300% increase in F-150 mobile generator use in the Houston area.

The combined power outages and excessive heat caused "countless" families to have their food spoil in powerless fridges which in addition to several stores suffering from power outages caused a significant food shortage, requiring food banks to distribute food across multiple underserved regions. Many residents waited in long lines at gas stations for generator fuel, while more long lines sprouted up at facilities with air conditioning. 29% of Greater Houston cell sites were down on 9 July, with just under 20% down on 10 July.

A house burned down shortly after its household reported a downed power line, with messages stating that utility company did not respond and that the fire company stated they were unable to help. Catholic workers in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese were unable to provide aid following the storm due to power outages impacting their technical and staffing programs, while Knights of Columbus reported communication and internet difficulties.

Healthcare
Multiple hospitals had to limit power usage to essential equipment, with several hospitals overcrowding with patients. Multiple senior nursing homes were unable to receive power for oxygen machines, including Ella Springs senior living facility despite being listed as a "critical load customer" with 85 residents. Animal rescue operations also ran out of power, jeopardizing the health of many rescue dogs. Hospitals had to take in dozens of patients suffering from heat-related symptoms, and were required to discharge patients lacking power or air conditioning at their home to a large sports complex with working air conditioning.

Five hospitals were closed until 10 July due to power outages, with 16 more requiring generators to function. The combination of overcrowding with multiple hospitals lacking power forced several hospitals to have patients wait in ambulances for three hours before they could be admitted to emergency rooms. At least 12 hospitals were forced to follow internal disaster protocols, while 43 dialysis clinics required additional assistance for dialysis operations. One police officer had to wait over a day to be admitted to a hospital for a gunshot wound to the leg.

At least six deaths in Harris County were directly traced to heat illnesses caused by a prolonged heat wave significantly exacerbated by the lack of power in the region.

Economic damages
Power outages hindered operations and transport at liquefied natural gas company Freeport LNG. Several ports and refineries were damaged by the storm, requiring operation and transit restrictions at Port Freeport. Eight public vessel terminals were temporarily shut down at the Port of Houston. The Port of Galveston recorded minor damage and power outages in several areas of the port and in the city of Galveston, causing a temporary halt in operations. AccuWeather estimated a total U.S. economic loss of $28 billion to $32 billion, with most of it situated in Texas.

Estimates made by The Perryman Group made preliminary estimates of ~USD$1.5 billion losses in damages caused by the storm itself, and estimated long-term economic losses of "$4.6 billion in total expenditures, $2.0 billion in gross product, and $1.3 billion in earnings".

Reactions
CenterPoint regulatory policy vice president Brad Tutunjian defended the gradual pace of CenterPoint's revival of the power grid by stating that restoring power for over one million customers was "a monumental number". He stated that the biggest difficulty was restoring power to lines and towers destroyed or damaged by fallen trees or branches. When press reporters questioned why CenterPoint wasn't more vigilant about trimming branches or putting more power lines underground, Tutunjian stated the company put many power lines underground over decades. He denied suggestions to employ third-party workers to stay in the storm in order to get power running quicker as unsafe. CenterPoint reported that most of its 12,000 recovery workers brought in to respond Hurricane Beryl were mobilized to near the Texas-Mexico border along the Gulf Coast based on earlier hurricane track predictions. CenterPoint claimed that its electricity system mostly operated "as intended" during Hurricane Beryl, with mostly electricity poles and wires being taken down instead of transmission towers or substations.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott decried the frequency of power grid failures in Texas due to severe weather while on an "economic development" trip in Asia, and stated that he would employ the Texas Public Utility Commission to research and investigate the reason for the power grid failures in addition to utility companies' preparations and responses to Beryl. Acting Governor Dan Patrick called the power outages the longest that Houston ever faced while stating that CenterPoint was responsible for its power grid failures, saying that the company "will have to answer for themselves" on if they were prepared or not. He also accused U.S. President Joe Biden of not reaching out quick enough following the disaster, of cutting down his aid request for 121 counties to 67, and of retracting Emergency Disaster Declaration funds after granting them by mistake, which Patrick claimed was responsible for recovery delays. He further claimed that Biden and the federal government were either incompetent or deliberately lying and "weaponing" the federal emergency response to make it appear as he and Greg Abbott were not doing their jobs well. The Harris County Republican Party disparaged CenterPoint for being "underprepared" despite being Harris County's primary electricity provider.

Biden gave condolences to Houston Mayor John Whitmire to people who lost their lives in the storm, and stated that FEMA and the US Coast Guard were ready to be mobilized to wherever they were needed.

Former engineer and senior advisor to Consolidated Edison Wei Du stated that a Category 1 hurricane causing over one million power outages indicated a significant need for "resiliency hardening investments". Carnegie Mellon University Institute for Energy Innovation leader Costa Samaras emphasized the risk to vulnerable people caused by power outages, requiring power grids to be able to withstand multiple concurrent climate-amplified severe weather events in order to protect lives. Sierra Club director Dave Cortez called Houston's power grid "20th century infrastructure in a 21st century climate crisis".