Houston leaders demand action on storm resilience after Beryl power outages
Local government not properly prepared for Beryl
More than a week after Hurricane Beryl, city leaders have had it with the days-long power outages. Criticism was aimed at CenterPoint, but most on the city council conceded local government should have been better equipped. FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan has more on what unfolded at City Hall.
HOUSTON - Beryl landfall - plus nine - and for members of Houston City Council, it triggered what some would call "a come to Jesus" moment on storm resilience.
"We can't let this become our new normal and Houston strong cannot mean we expect our citizens to endure weeks plus without power in the summer and bounce back and expect everything to be okay. And it happen again and again," said Councilmember Mario Castillo.
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"We are Houston strong. But the lights, it's taking too long. And in Texas, the power goes out too much," said Councilmember Abbie Kamin.
Perhaps the most strident voice for better preparation, Councilman Edward Pollard.
"We are known for being Houston strong, but I can tell you it feels like Houston's tired, Houston's frustrated. You can't say you are well prepared and then you go a week without power from a Cat 1. What if it was a Cat 2? What if it was a Cat 3? So, we have to be fully transparent with the public and let them know we did not do all that we can do from a City standpoint. We are not fully mobilized. From a Centerpoint standpoint, we were not fully mobilized. We were scrambling after the fact and the City felt it," said Pollard.
Speaking one on one with FOX 26, Mayor John Whitmire was critical of the City's monopoly energy supplier, Centerpoint.
"We will hold Centerpoint accountable. We will do it from City Hall, and obviously as I was, two days ago, with the Governor to see what can be done. The State really has the authority. Centerpoint does not have a resource problem, except they are not getting their product to the users of electricity. They got to do better. They have got to communicate better."
Whitmire acknowledged Centerpoint's problem with protracted outages is hardly a new one. A 2009 post-Hurricane Ike task force clearly identified falling trees and limbs as the overwhelming cause of grid failure and strongly recommended "aggressive vegetation control" by the utility. And yet, 15 years later, 2.5 million people still lost power in a wind event.
"To my knowledge, no one has been acting on these recommendations. It is frustrating to me that people in City government. before I got here, have not brought this up," said Whitmire.
Meantime, Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who represents 1.2 million residents, assessed Centerpoint a failing grade for crisis communication.
"I can't get anyone to talk to me, in terms of what their priorities are, what their plan is, and those kind of details would be very helpful to a very patient group of constituents out there that simply want to know when they are going to get their power back. If it's going to be seven days, that they would go make other plans. We need as much information as we can get, and we have gotten the least information, and I think it's really unacceptable. This is not their first rodeo. This is not our first rodeo. We understand what happens when you have trees near lines, there should be aggressive vegetation control," said Ramsey.
With more than four months of hurricane season ahead, Ramsey says he's ready to work with Centerpoint to keep trees out of the wires when the next storm hits.