A much clearer picture has emerged with grim assessments underway in the aftermath of what had been Hurricane, then tropical storm, Beryl. Since making landfall in Texas on Monday, the storm left a path of storm damage, flash flooding, power outages, and downed trees. Next comes the cleanup and recovery efforts. But with more than 2.7 million homes and businesses having lost power at its peak, in Texas and Louisiana, sweltering heat has now become the most immediate concern. No power means no air conditioning, which creates dangerous conditions. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a heat advisory through Wednesday for areas in and around Houston, and Deep East Texas. The NWS cautions that temperatures will warm into the lower 90s on this Tuesday with a heat index, often referred as the “feels like” temperature, reaching as high as 106 degrees.
Officials blame Beryl for at least seven deaths, six in Texas and one in Louisiana. The post-tropical cyclone has kept churching northeast, through Arkansas and beyond. Even before Beryl made landfall, police in Rosenberg, Texas south of Houston, had begun several rescue operations caused by flash flooding. Captain Suni Jugueta said at the time, “I want to say we’ve had three total high water rescues. I can’t give you an exact number because all of our systems are down at the moment. We have limited internet so it’s hard to verify that. Three I can recall overnight during the storm.”
At the peak of SWEPCO outages, nearly 40,000 customers lost power in East Texas and Western Louisiana. In Texas, emergency officials estimate it could take days to return power to more than two million customers still without electricity.
