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.

  • FiveMacs
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    4 months ago

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

    • protist@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        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.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          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
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            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.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              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
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                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.