Majority of Houston’s Power Is Back After Devastating Storms

After the devastating storms that hit Houston, most residents have their electricity back, and federal relief is on its way.

The good news for those impacted by last week’s catastrophic storms in the Houston area was that most of the hundreds of thousands of people who were left without air conditioning and electricity in the stifling heat got their power restored. At least seven people lost their lives as a result of the terrible storms that hit on Thursday, which also completely shut down parts of Houston. The severe weather, which included hurricane-force winds and thunderstorms, destroyed a great deal of property, uprooted trees, and shattered glass in skyscrapers in the downtown area.

Education was also impacted by the storms; on Friday, more than 400,000 pupils’ lessons were canceled by Houston area school systems. The state’s largest school district, Houston Independent School District, declared that 215 of its 274 campuses will reopen on Monday. Other sizable districts, like Spring Branch and Cypress-Fairbanks, intended to stay closed.

A tornado that made landfall close to Cypress, a suburb northwest of Houston, added to the already extensive damage. 88% of customers in the Houston area had their power restored by Sunday night, according to CenterPoint Energy spokesman Paul Lock. Complete restoration is anticipated by Wednesday’s business closing.

Even with this improvement, as of Sunday night, some 240,000 homes and businesses in Texas—mostly in the Houston region—were still without electricity. Strong gusts and a possible tornado caused power outages for over 1,780 consumers in Louisiana as well.

In order to address the outages, CenterPoint Energy mobilized a tremendous workforce, with over 5,000 contractors and 2,000 employees working nonstop in the Houston region. According to Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of electric business at CenterPoint, “we understand the higher temperatures we are experiencing across Houston and surrounding communities make getting the lights and air conditioning back on even more important,” underscoring the pressing nature of their efforts.

Five cooling centers were opened in response to the continuous heat and power outages, one of which was located in the Cloverleaf neighborhood, where locals went to escape the unbearable heat. At least fifteen community facilities were scheduled to function as cooling centers on Monday.

Judge Lina Hidalgo of Harris County declared that loans from the Small Business Administration and disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are also on their way. Residents in areas of Houston, Harris County, and surrounding counties that were impacted by the recent storms and earlier flooding from heavy rains in late April and early May are the target audience for this help.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire declared on Monday that a six-block section of downtown Houston will be closed to aid in the recovery process. This will enable workers to carry out further repairs on a number of tall buildings whose windows were blown out during the storms.

Residents of the senior living facility Houston Heights Tower celebrated the return of the air conditioning and lighting in a moving moment on Sunday morning. Since Thursday night, the almost 200 inhabitants had been living on emergency power, with the generators barely able to run the community room’s few fans and one elevator.

The provision of basic necessities like food, water, and toilet paper to people has been made possible in large part by volunteers and city employees.

As Houston continues to heal, the joint efforts of federal aid, utility personnel, and municipal authorities give people impacted by the storms hope and support, highlighting the resiliency and sense of community among the city’s citizens.

“It simply illustrates the way individuals unite,” homeowner Joseph Torregrossa remarked, fighting back tears.

In a post on the social media site X, the National Weather Service warned locals in the Houston area to anticipate “sunny, hot and increasingly humid days.” This week was predicted to see highs of roughly 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius), with heat indices perhaps getting close to 102 degrees (39 degrees Celsius) by midweek.