How a power outage left this central Houston intersection underwater a week after Beryl | Houston Public Media (2024)
Infrastructure
Temporary barricades have been blocking off a stretch of Elgin Street and Lockwood Drive since July 8, when the category one hurricane left many city streets flooded. The roadways meet at a dip underneath Interstate 45 on the north tip of the University of Houston campus.
A failing stormwater pump caused by a power outage has left more than a foot of stagnant water flooding a well-traveled intersection in Houston’s Third Ward eight days after Hurricane Beryl.
Remnants of the Category 1 hurricane aren’t hard to spot a week after it battered the city— uprooted trees and piles of yard debris are scattered in front yards across the metropolitan. But a stretch of Elgin Street and Lockwood Drive appears almost frozen in time as more than a foot of static floodwater still stretches across the intersection.
More than 2.26 million CenterPoint Energy customers were out of power after Beryl touched down in Houston last week. Some Houstonians are still waiting for their lights to come back on as state officials have taken an approach to criticize and demand better from the major utility company. Despite officials pointing the finger at CenterPoint’s storm unpreparedness, the city’s stormwater pumps— which are vital to Houston’s ability to drain water out of the streets after major flooding events— are operated by electricity, Erin Jones, a Houston Public Works spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Our stormwater pumps require power to operate and the pump along 4400 Gulf Freeway currently does not have power,” she said. “Our team investigated the location and found no recent 311 requests for drainage investigations at this location.”
Temporary barricades have been blocking off the road that intersects with Spur 5 since July 8, when the category one hurricane left many city streets flooded. The roadways meet at a dip underneath Interstate 45 on the north tip of the University of Houston campus. And while it took no longer than a few days for other city streets that bore the brunt of Beryl’s floodwaters to drain, the roadway has remained underwater more than a week after the storm with no clear restoration timeline.
Houston Police Department officers have operated in shifts to patrol the intersection 24 hours a day.
It’s a corridor well traversed by METRO buses that frequent the Eastwood Transit Center on the corner of the blocked section of the road. Some METRO commuters have reported buses taking up to 30 minutes longer to re-route around the roadway.
“I can confirm our local bus routes 4, 25 and 80 must detour around this location, so this will result in additional travel time going in both directions,” Doug Delony, a METRO spokesperson said. “We continue to advise all patrons to allow extra travel time following Hurricane Beryl.”
It’s unclear how long the road will be shut down. Jones said people should report streets not draining properly more than 48 hours after a storm to 311.
“Road conditions have improved, but these three routes are among a handful that still have detours directly related to the hurricane,” Delony said.
A failing stormwater pump caused by a power outage has left more than a foot of stagnant water flooding a well-traveled intersection in Houston's Third Ward eight days after Hurricane Beryl.
“During Hurricane Rita, when I was in southeast Texas, that was 32 days without power. Hurricane Ike was 18 days.” Hurricane Rita, which struck in 2005, was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Weather Service. Ike, in 2007, was a category 2 hurricane at landfall.
Tutunjian said CenterPoint was “fully prepared” before Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane. The preparation process began in April, Tutunjian said, with staff tabletop exercises to revisit and sharpen storm response efforts. Later on, training exercises were conducted in the field with line crews.
Even without hot water, you may notice that your faucets still run fairly normally during a power outage. Homes that are connected to the local water supply should still have access to cold water. People who use an electric pump to draw water out of a well may temporarily lose access to water.
CenterPoint has defended its response to the storm by noting that “trees across the Greater Houston area also contributed heavily to the outages as they were vulnerable due to significant freezes, drought and heavy rain over the past three years.” It's true that there have been multiple storms, including the ...
Almost 100 of those are solar-related, 30 are wind-related and more than 60 are related to energy technology. Houston refineries process 2.6 million barrels of crude oil. Port Houston is the “largest petrochemical manufacturing complex in the Americas.
When Hurricane Beryl swept through southeast Texas on July 8, its damaging 80-mile-per-hour winds took down thousands of trees and knocked out much of the electricity system. More than 2.6 million Texas power customers went without electricity for days in the summer heat.
Therefore, the conventional refining process of beryl requires pretreatment, which involves melting of the ore at a high temperature of 1600–1625 °C in an arc furnace, followed by quenching into water to make frit, before dissolving the beryl in acid.
Depending on the amount of water remaining in the pipes, you might be able to flush your toilet several times while the power is out. Eventually, however, your tank won't fill up anymore because the pumps are down. When this happens, you will need to flush your toilet manually by pouring in a bucket of water.
If you know that you may have a power outage coming, taking steps to prepare is important. One key preparation step is filling your bathtub with water. Doing so gives you access to stored water, so you can use it for things like flushing the toilet, washing hands, and providing pets with drinking water.
To shower when the power is out, your home needs a traditional tank-style water heater. If that water heater still has hot water in reserve, then you can take a warm shower. If you plan to take a shower, you need to do it soon after the power goes out.
As the USDA notes in Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency, your refrigerator will keep food safe for up to 4 hours during a power outage. Keep the door closed as much as possible. Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers after 4 hours without power.
Use a receptacle voltage tester by plugging the device into the outlet. The lights on the device will come on to indicate the presence of a live electrical current. Test an electrical outlet with a non-contact voltage tester by holding the tester about an inch away from the short slot on the outlet.
In 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island as a Category 2 storm, causing flooding and wind damage to the Houston area. It left about 2.2 million CenterPoint customers without power, according to the Harris County Flood Control District, which said that 75% of the power was restored within 10 days.
It was one of the largest power outages caused by a natural disaster in the history of the Midwest, with around 3.7 million customers losing power (well over 8 million people), including 2.6 million outages in the state of Ohio alone 26 people were killed in the interior states.
Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston Island at 2:10 a.m. Saturday, September 13, 2008 with 110 mph sustained winds, a strong Category 2. The landfall of Ike resulted in extensive storm surge flooding, wind damage and rainfall flooding across all of Harris and surrounding counties.
Texas opted for its own power grid at the turn of the 20th century. Natural gas and wind generate most of Texas's electricity and its infrastructure isn't winterized against freezing temperatures, leading to the 2021 winter blackout.
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