Anger mounts in southeast Texas as crippling power outages and heat turn deadly | CNN
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Frustrations are mounting across southeast Texas as residents enter a fourth day of crippling power outages and heat, a combination that has proven dangerous – and at times deadly.

Frustrations are mounting across southeast Texas as residents enter a fourth day of crippling power outages and heat, a combination that has proven dangerous – and at times deadly – as some struggle to access food, gas and medical care.

More than 1.3 million homes and businesses across the region are still without power after Beryl slammed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, leaving at least 11 people dead across Texas and Louisiana.

Many residents are sheltering with friends or family who still have power, but many can’t afford to leave their homes, Houston City Councilman Julian Ramirez told CNN. And while countless families have lost food in their warming fridges, many stores are still closed, leaving government offices, food banks, and other public services scrambling to distribute food to underserved areas, he said.

  • cm0002@lemmy.world
    51·
    4 months ago

    Florida, all the craziness aside, is actually part of the national grid and, like the other commenter said, usually rebounds quickly.

    Texas OTOH keeps insisting their independent unconnected grid is superior, even though the evidence is stacking quite tall against that claim. If it’s not a hurricane, it’s the heat. If it’s not the heat, it’s the cold. If it’s not the cold, it’s the wind.

    It’s always SOMETHING with their grid, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with their insistence that their grid be independent. It’s all the WoKeNESs that’s the problem!!! /s

    • Z4XC@lemmy.world
      921·
      4 months ago

      Although being disconnected from the national grid is a problem. This isn’t the problem this time.

      This was poor preparation and response by the city and power company. We haven’t had proper tree trimming around power lines and there weren’t repair crews staged for this. Not to mention trees dying off from extreme heat/cold then being blown down.

      • cm0002@lemmy.world
        34·
        4 months ago

        This was poor preparation and response by the city and power company.

        You don’t say? Maybe if there were some sort of rules to ensure proper procedures are in place AND being followed. Like regulations or something hmmm

      • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
        94·
        4 months ago

        A tree shouldn’t be taking the entire grid down…this sounds like regurgitated Facebook bs

        • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
          101·
          4 months ago

          “A tree” didn’t “take the entire grid down.” A hurricane and thousands of trees took thousands of power lines down, and there are many localized outages interspersed between areas that still have power. “The grid” is fine, individual neighborhoods’ connections to the grid are not.

          • Madison420@lemmy.world
            22·
            4 months ago

            The grid is only fine right now because of decreased load due to outages. When everyone has power again and the load increases they’ll have a different set of problems they’ll end up blaming on FEMA, green energy and hurricanes.

            • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
              15·
              4 months ago

              That makes no sense. The Texas grid hasn’t had any issues with balancing electricity supply and demand since the winter storm in '21 that took a bunch of generating facilities offline

              • Madison420@lemmy.world
                21·
                4 months ago

                A whole 4 years of stability! I stand corrected that’s a such a long and outstanding record that I should feel shame for doubting or capability after being involved in several deaths then and several more now.

                • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
                  24·
                  4 months ago

                  No argument from me that what happened in '21 was at least partially avoidable with more effective regulation, but you’re on here talking about this outage in Houston that has absolutely nothing to do with that, because a fucking hurricane knocked down thousands of trees and power lines.

                  • Madison420@lemmy.world
                    1·
                    4 months ago

                    Their point was that Texas because it’s unregulated is generally unprepared and have been for most “freak” incidents that were predicted in advance. Sure the hurricane changed paths, they do that so you prepare anyway.

      • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
        49·
        4 months ago

        People are downvoting every comment that recognizes this has nothing to do with ERCOT. They heard about ERCOT in 2021 and eagerly blame it for every power-related issue in Texas, apparently

        • Z4XC@lemmy.world
          51·
          4 months ago

          Yup this is the city and Centerpoint that should be on the hook for this

          • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
            42·
            4 months ago

            At the same time, let’s recognize this was a hurricane, which would have similarly knocked out power in any metro area, and would’ve taken a few days to fix in any metro area. Centerpoint didn’t pre-stage outside assistance like they should have though, but to their very small credit, Beryl’s track changed dramatically from projections over the final 72 hours before landfall