HOUSTON — Pressure mounted Wednesday on Houston’s power utility as millions of residents still had no power nearly three days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, amid questions over how a city that is all too familiar with destructive weather was unable to better withstand a Category 1 storm. With frustration growing as people searched for places to cool off, fuel up and grab a bite to eat, a CenterPoint Energy executive faced a barrage from city leaders who wanted to know it was taking so long to get the lights back on again. CenterPoint “needs to a do a better job” restoring power, Mayor John Whitmire said.
“That’s the consensus of Houstonians. That’s mine.” Beryl came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest type, but has has been blamed for at least seven U.
S. deaths — one in Louisiana and six in Texas. Earlier, 11 died in the Caribbean.
The storm’s lingering impact for many in Texas, however, was the wallop to the power supply that left much of the nation’s fourth-largest city sweltering days later in hot and humid conditions that the National Weather Service deemed potentially dangerous. “Maybe they thought it wasn’t going to be so bad, but it’s had a tremendous effect. They needed to be better prepared,” construction worker Carlos Rodriguez, 39, said as he gathered apples, oranges and ready-to-eat meal packs at a food distribution center.
His family, with two daughters ages 3 and 7, was struggling, he said. “We have no power, we’.