Nearly a million homes and businesses were still without power in Texas Friday morning, five days after Hurricane Beryl clawed ashore with fierce winds and rain that knocked down trees and damaged electricity infrastructure. CenterPoint Energy, the largest provider of electricity in Texas, reported about 860,000 customers still affected, though they restored more than 1.4 million since the hurricane made landfall, according to their website. Entergy said Texas restoration crews restored power to approximately 183,000 of its 252,460 customers affected by Hurricane Beryl by Friday afternoon. They say they are projecting full restoration on Monday and about 75 percent of those affected back online by the end of Friday.
As Houston temperatures soared, the Heat Index reaching well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, residents grew frustrated. Many businesses closed their doors due to the lack of power as many residents tossed hundreds of dollars' worth of groceries since the food had gone bad, and many were getting disenfranchised. Soonkack Kook, an owner of a midtown Houston coffee shop, posted on Instagram expressing his concerns regarding potential future hurricanes.
Meteorologists at Colorado State University recently increased their forecast for the severity of the 2024 hurricane season to six major storms of at least 111 miles an hour, from an earlier prediction of five. Beryl initially hit the Texas coast as a Category 1, with winds around 80 miles per hour, from an initial Category 5.
Kook's coffee shop has set up a pop-up outside. They have been without power for five days and can't afford not to be open. CenterPoint continues its hard work, saying 80% of affected customers should have their power restored by Sunday. Since Monday, crews have replaced more than 2,000 poles and dealt with damage from more than 6,000 trees that knocked down lines and other electrical equipment.
Without power, residents turned to websites like AirBnb and to find hotels or vacation rentals with limited and pricey options. Some pondered leaving town to get out of the heat and lack of power. According to a U.S. Department of Energy study, the median home in Houston would remain habitable for only four days during a type of severe heat event without power. Lowell Ungar, director of federal policy for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, said that homes without good insulation get dangerous fast when AC is lost.
Monday morning, Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda Bay in South Texas, just north of Freeport, Texas—home to the country's third-largest liquefied natural gas facility and a host of chemical plants. Freeport LNG shut down Saturday as it braced for the hurricane; at posting time, there was no report of any restart. The company declined to comment on when it would resume operations.
Dow lowered production rates at its Texas sites due to power infrastructure issues at the Freeport site. Olin announced force majeure on some product and aromatic shipments due to damage from Beryl at its Freeport facilities. BASF added that the impact was minimal and the company is working on resuming operations. Formosa Plastics stated that normal operations are expected to resume next week after it shut down its Point Comfort plant following a malfunctioning gas compressor.
Most of the Gulf Coast ports, which had shut down in anticipation of the hurricane, have issued notices of reopened facilities and vessel traffic. Repair to one navigational aid at the Port of Freeport is not expected to be finished until Saturday at the earliest. Damage to the refineries and offshore production platforms has been minor.