Nearly A Million People In Texas Still Without Electricity After The Beryl Storm

JAKARTA - Nearly a million homes and businesses in Texas were still experiencing power outages on Friday, July 12, five days after Hurricane Beryl hit strong winds and rain.

CenterPoint Energy, Texas's largest electricity provider, said about 870,000 of its subscribers were still affected. The company has restored electricity for about 1.4 million subscribers in the days since Beryl, according to its website.

Frustration increased among residents as temperatures in Houston increased and the Hot Index reached 38 degrees Celsius. Several places of business remained closed due to no electricity supply, while residents were forced to throw away hundreds of dollars worth of groceries.

"The storm that just happened recently is only Category 1. Most likely we will face more storms, and the storm could be stronger. Will we face the same problem? Will the company in charge of improving the country be ready this time?" Soonkack Kook, founder of a coffee shop in Midtown Houston, said in an Instagram post.

Meteorologists at Colorado State University this week renewed their forecast of the severity of the storm in 2024 and called Beryl a sign of a very active season.

They are now anticipating six major storms, categorized on wind speeds of more than 111 miles per hour, up from an earlier estimate of five storms.

Beryl was the earliest Category 5 storm ever recorded when it happened more than a week ago, but hit Texas's coast as a Category 1 storm with wind speeds of about 80 miles per hour.

The Kook coffee shop has opened services outside because the electricity went out for five days and could not be closed during that time.

Locals without electricity are looking for hotels and bookings on holiday rental platforms such as Airbnb.

But few options are available, many of which are at high prices. Some say they are considering traveling out of town on weekends because they are unable to cope with electricity and heat shortages.