HOUSTON — Power began to return to some of the millions of homes and businesses left in the dark when Hurricane Beryl struck. struck in the Houston areaas the weakened storm moved east, likely spawning tornadoes and causing further damage.
Beryl is accused of killing several people in Texas and at least one person in Louisiana on Monday, officials said.
After peaking on Monday, when more than 2.7 million customers in Houston were without power, the number had risen to more than 2.4 million homes and businesses without power by Monday evening. according to PowerOutage.usThe lack of cooling in people’s homes, downed power lines and non-working traffic lights prompted authorities to ask residents to stay home if possible.
“Houstonians need to know that we are working around the clock to keep you safe,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said at a news conference Monday. He urged residents to also be aware of the dangers of high water, stay hydrated and look out for their neighbors.
Beryl weakened to a tropical depression later Monday with maximum sustained winds of about 35 mph (56 kph). The storm was still very intense, and the National Weather Service confirmed on social media Monday night that tornadoes had been spotted in northeastern Louisiana. Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington said in a Facebook post that a woman was killed in the Benton area when a tree fell on her home.
Dozens of tornado warnings were issued in Louisiana and Arkansas on Monday evening, and the warnings remained in effect through the night.
Although Beryl had weakened, it threatened to cause severe weather across multiple states in the coming days.
Texas state and local government officials warned that it could take several days for power to be fully restored after Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, downing 10 power lines and knocking down trees that took power lines with it.
Beryl was far less powerful on Tuesday than the Category 5 behemoth that tore a deadly path of destruction across the country. parts of Mexico And the Caribbean last weekend. But the wind and rain were still strong enough to blow down hundreds of trees already standing in the water-soaked earth and leave dozens of cars stranded on flooded roads.
“We haven’t been through any difficult circumstances yet,” said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country.
Patrick said CenterPoint Energy would bring in thousands of additional workers to restore power, with the highest priority being nursing homes and assisted living centers.
At least two people were killed when trees fell on homes in Texas, and a third person, a civilian employee of the Houston Police Department, was killed when he became trapped in floodwaters under a freeway overpass, Whitmire said.
The power outages were a familiar occurrence in Houston: Severe storms ravaged the area in May, killing eight people, leaving nearly a million without power and flooding countless streets.
Residents who were without power after Beryl did their best.
“We didn’t really sleep,” Eva Costancio said as she looked at a large tree that had fallen over power lines in her neighborhood in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg. Costancio said she had been without power for several hours and worried that the food in her refrigerator had spoiled.
“We are struggling to get food and it would be difficult if we lost that food,” she said.
Electric companies were working to restore service as quickly as possible, a pressing priority for homes that were also without air conditioning in the middle of summer. Temperatures were expected in the 90s (above 90 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued a heat warning, saying the heat index in the area could reach 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius).
The state opened cooling centers and distribution centers for food and water, said Nim Kidd, the state’s chief of emergency operations.
Rainfall from Beryl lashed Houston and other parts of the coast on Monday, forcing streets in neighborhoods that had already been closed off. washed away by previous storms. Television stations broadcast the dramatic rescue Monday of a man who climbed onto the roof of his pickup truck after it became trapped in fast-moving water. Emergency crews used a fire truck’s extendable ladder to attach a life preserver and a line to him before pulling him to dry land.
Officials in Houston reported at least 25 floodwater rescues Monday afternoon, mostly of people whose vehicles were trapped in floodwaters.
Many streets and neighborhoods in Houston were littered with fallen branches and other debris. The hum of chainsaws filled the air Monday afternoon as residents chopped up fallen trees and branches that blocked streets and sidewalks.
Patrick warned that the flooding could continue for days as rain continued to fall on already soggy ground.
“This is not a one-day event,” he said.
President Joe Biden received regular updates on the storm after it made landfall and called the mayor of Houston on Monday, the White House said. He told the mayor that his administration will ensure Texas residents have the resources they need to weather the storm and recover.
Several companies with refineries or industrial facilities in the area reported that the power outages made it necessary to burn off gases at the facilities.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. said it was conducting “safe combustion of excess gases” at its Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, but did not provide information on the amount of gas flared or how long it would take. Formosa Plastics Corporation and Freeport LNG also reported flaring related to Beryl, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Companies have 24 hours to share emissions data after burning stops, a TCEQ representative said in an email.
The first storm that developed into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean en route to Texas. In Jamaica, officials said Monday that islanders dealing with food shortages after Beryl destroyed more than $6.4 million worth of crops and supporting infrastructure.
Beryl was expected to bring more heavy rain and wind to other states in the coming days. One of those states, Missouri, was already experiencing a wet summer. Heavy rain unrelated to the storm prompted several rescues around the city of Columbia, where rivers and creeks were already high ahead of Beryl’s expected arrival on Tuesday.
___
Associated Press reporters Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Corey Williams in Detroit; Julie Walker in New York; Melina Walling in Chicago; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.