Houston power outages enter 4th day amid heat wave fears

Hundreds of thousands of Texans have been without power for a fourth day after a devastating storm ravaged Houston.

More than 225,000 people were still without power Monday morning, according to poweroutages.us, after the storm brought torrential rain, flooding and winds of up to 100 mph.

So far, seven people have been killed by the storm, including four in the city of Houston.

The storm left nearly 900,000 people without power at its peak Thursday after high winds downed power lines across Houston.

Flights were also grounded at Houston’s two main airports, while the Houston Independent School District, Texas’ largest public school system, canceled classes.

Local power company CenterPoint Energy said it was working to repair damaged power lines over the weekend, adding it did so for more than half a million customers in the 48 hours following storm. But as of Monday, 227,715 customers were still without power, with the company warning that some would not have power until the end of the day Wednesday.

The outages were so widespread that even the company’s online outage tracking system was overwhelmed and stopped working reliably.

All of this comes amid a heat wave in the state, with temperatures climbing around 90 F, which officials say is “leading to increased power consumption.”

“We understand that the warmer temperatures we are experiencing in Houston and surrounding communities make it even more important to restore lighting and air conditioning,” said Lynnae Wilson, CenterPoint’s senior vice president of electrical operations, in a statement.

On Sunday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas asked Texans to reduce their energy use by “raising your thermostat a degree or two, if comfortable, and delaying the operation of major appliances or water pumps.” swimming pool” between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time, Monday.

High temperatures are expected to persist, with heat indices likely approaching 100 F by midweek, according to meteorologist Marc Chenard of the National Weather Service.

“We expect the heat impact to gradually increase…we will start to see that heat risk increase from Tuesday through Wednesday into Friday,” Chenard said.

The Houston Department of Health announced it will distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to seniors, people with disabilities and people who care for children with disabilities in the area to cope with the heat.

Five cooling centers were also opened: four in Houston and one in Kingwood.

The heat wave follows a week of severe weather warnings for Texas.

As of Tuesday, more than 15 million people from Texas to Florida were at risk of severe storms and tornadoes, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down briefly Thursday near the Cypress area of ​​Texas, while another tornado struck the southwest part of Waller County.

Dangerous weather conditions prompted President Joe Biden to issue an expedited major disaster declaration for seven Texas counties, allowing FEMA to quickly approve individual aid in addition to low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration .

Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Friday that the recovery process would likely take weeks, not days.

“It was fierce. It was intense. It was fast, and most Houstonians didn’t have time to get out of danger,” Whitmire said at a news conference.