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.
It’s a bigger economic problem than people are talking about. I have a manager who works from Houston. He can’t work right now. Several other coworkers as well.
At some point, employers will have to consider the liability of employing someone in Texas, simply because a power outage could seriously impact them.
A lot of inertia at the scale of the bulk of the petrochemical industry.
I would not hold my breath. Businesses will simply throw technology at the problem until they can’t see it anymore. Was just in a meeting today where the boss was raving about satellite phones solving our connectivity issues.
The Harris County Republican Party criticized CenterPoint in a social media post for its “seemingly lack of preparedness.”
The reason this keeps happening in Texas is republican deregulation though…
Yes. Hurricanes should definitely be regulated harder.
Texas doesn’t regulate their power grid…
It’s why they can’t connect to the rest of the country’s power grid…
I’d say someone from Texas should know that, but if y’all did you wouldn’t keep voting Republican >
Yeah no shit. But even we can’t stop MASSIVE STORMS from knocking down power lines. It has nothing to do with what grid we’re on.
Do you know what “redundancy” means?
Do you? If power lines get knocked down, they’re ain’t gonna be no electricity. What states have “redundancies?”
If route A is down, route B is used.
This is redundancy.
Texas only has route A.
That is the issue. Power cannot come from anywhere else than route A because there is no connection to the national grid, route B.
This doesn’t prevent last leg localized power outages, but it does prevent the widespread grid wide failures Texas regularly experiences.
But you don’t want to hear this, so go buy a diesel generator instead and enjoy being independent.
I already have a generator. And we are literally discussing the last leg here. Our grid is fine.
You’re part of the problem. No matter what breaks down in a Republican system you people do whatever you can to avoid the reality that Republicans are greedy. And their greed hurts you. But sure, let’s blame nature even though no other state has a problem on this scale, this often.
Bro, you think Republicans can control the hurricanes and I’M part of the problem? Y’all people delusional.
If power lines get knocked down, they’re ain’t gonna be no electricity
Unless the grid has redundancies…
But like, I’m assuming you didn’t mean to use a double negative there?
I dunno man, I don’t think we’re gonna work this out there seems to be communication issues
