State leaders confirm third person died from storm, power restored to take days
State officials said late Monday that it would take days to restore power to the 2.7 million customers who were disrupted by Hurricane Berrier, warning that dangers would persist even as the storm continued to spread.
“This is going to be a multi-day recovery effort,” Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, said at a news conference. “I ask Texans to be patient as crews work to Do whatever you can to restore energy across the state.”
Nearly 2.7 million Texans were without power as of Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us, with the majority of outages being served by CenterPoint Energy, which owns most residents in Harris and Fort Bend counties ’s primary electricity provider, in addition to dozens of communities in East Texas.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who serves as governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is out of state, warned that more people could experience outages and downed transmission lines before service is restored. Overwhelming trees. Patrick said CenterPoint has deployed 11,500 personnel to assist in restoring power as quickly as possible.
Texas Emergency Management Agency Director Nim Kidd said the department will work with local officials to open cooling centers and shelters as the weather is hot and residents remain without power. First responders are busy moving patients from nursing homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities.
A third person, a city of Houston employee, drowned in a flooded underpass, Patrick said. Earlier, two people were killed in two separate incidents when trees fell down while they were sheltering in their homes.
—Kaila Guo
More than 2.7 million electricity customers are without power
As of 12:59 p.m. Monday, Hurricane Beryl had left more than 2.7 million customers without power in Texas, according to estimates from PowerOutage.us and CenterPoint Energy.
CenterPoint announced at 3:30 p.m. that its crews were beginning to restore power to the 2.26 million Texas customers without power. CenterPoint has not yet provided an estimate of when power will be restored to millions of customers.
“We are mobilizing all available resources, as well as mutual aid resources from other utilities, to begin quickly and safely restoring power to customers,” said Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of CenterPoint's electric business. “We understand how difficult it is to be without power for an extended period of time, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the heat. We focus on the important and time-sensitive work ahead.
CenterPoint will begin releasing estimates for large-scale power restoration after it assesses damage.
Power outages were most severe in the Houston area and coastal counties including Matagorda, where Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane around 4 a.m. Monday. Galveston, Calhoun and Jackson counties also experienced severe power outages. As the morning progressed, the outages spread further inland and into the heart of eastern Texas, including areas such as Polk, San Jacinto, Montgomery, Grimes and Washington counties.
Most of the outages occurred among customers who get their power from CenterPoint Energy. CenterPoint is the primary electricity provider for the vast majority of residents in Harris and Fort Bend counties and also provides power to dozens of communities in East Texas. This provider does not currently provide county-specific outage numbers.
CenterPoint warns people to stay away from downed power lines and not to try to remove branches or objects from power lines. Instead, customers are advised to report outages and hazardous conditions to their electric utility or local authorities.
As of midday, about 25,000 AEP Texas customers were still without power. Most of the outages occurred in the upper Corpus Christi area — the loop from Port Lavaca to Bay City to El Campo to Victoria. AEP crews began restoring power to some customers Monday and expected to have more restoration information within the next 24 hours.
For the more than 25,000 Oncor Electric Delivery customers affected by the outage, power restoration may occur on a case-by-case basis, Oncor spokesperson Kaiti Blake said.
— Pooja Salhotra and Berenice Garcia
Tornadoes reported in East Texas after Beryl downgraded to tropical storm
Hurricane Beryl, which downed trees and power lines in the greater Houston area, has been downgraded to a tropical storm, meaning wind speeds have dropped below 75 miles per hour.
The National Hurricane Center issued a warning at 1 p.m. that maximum sustained winds had dropped to about 60 miles per hour. Beryl was moving northeast at about 14 miles per hour, with speeds expected to increase as it continued through east Texas, where some local officials asked residents to shelter in place.
The National Weather Service in Shreveport is tracking three confirmed tornadoes on radar, including two in Texas and a third in Louisiana. The first is south of Joaquin and north of Lufkin, near the Louisiana border, and the second is north of Timpson, also near the border.
Forecasters urged Texans to be careful in the event of downed power lines and warned that improper use of generators could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Along the Texas coastline, a storm surge warning remains in effect from north of San Luis Pass to Sabine Pass, including Galveston Bay. A tropical storm warning has been discontinued from Port O'Connor to San Luis Pass.
Coastal bays, including areas such as Corpus Christi, were not affected by the storm.
— Pooja Salhotra and Jess Huff
