The Ongoing Impacts of Hurricane Beryl: Texas and Beyond
At the time of writing (11/07/24), Texas is entering its fourth day of power outages caused by Hurricane Beryl, a Category 1 hurricane that’s resulted in serious damage, disruption, and even death in the state and beyond. As of yesterday, around 1.7 million people were without power in the fallout of the tropical storm's impact, however, the ongoing issues go far beyond the Texas power outages.
How Hard Has Hurricane Beryl Hit Texas?
Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 storm at around 4 a.m. this Monday, weakening into a post-tropical storm as it moved forward. While Category 1 is the lowest level hurricane that the season can experience, it’s still causing significant damage in Texas and beyond. The hurricane sustained winds of around 65 mph with gusts over 80 mph causing tree falls, property damage, and significant casualties in the state.
Widespread Power Outages
The primary impact of this Texas hurricane has been the power outages, which are still impacting over 1 million people at the time of writing and affecting 3 million at the peak of the situation. This has been particularly stressful for residents dealing with the Houston heat, with temperatures reaching around 105F in Houston this week. With no ability to cool off with AC, along with electrical medical equipment losing its function, this heatwave is expected to cause widespread distress and medical emergencies for at-risk communities such as seniors, infants, and the chronically ill.
So far, CenterPoint Energy has restored power to over 850,000 of their customers, with the Public Utility Commission also pledging their participation in a multi-day restoration process. Around 10,000 electrical workers, including 7,000 from outside Houston are being mobilised to aid in the restoration process. While there’s been no confirmation of an immediate timeline, it’s expected that the hardest-hit areas will have to deal with power outages for some time.
Flooding
Another major impact of Hurricane Beryl has been the flooding. Although less severe than 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, due to having a faster movement, it’s still caused many drainage bayous, highways, and underpasses to flood or overflow. So far, around 47 people have been rescued from high water hazards.
US Casualties
So far there have been at least 10 deaths in the US, including 7 in Texas and one in Louisana. Most of these unfortunate deaths have resulted from falling trees, with two people crushed in their homes, and more found dead due to direct impact. One Houston Police Department civilian employee was killed by driving into a flooded underpass, while another died in a storm-related housefire.
Government and Utility Responses to Hurricane Beryl
So far, the response to Hurricane Beryl has left something to be desired in the eyes of many citizens. Major criticism has been directed at the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who has been absent throughout the Hurricane, taking a 9-day trip to Asia to “drive forward progress…of the global economy.” Dan Patrick has been acting on the absent governor’s behalf.
According to President Joe Biden, emergency hurricane aid to Texas has been delayed due to a lack of ability to reach state officials – a claim was rejected by the Governor’s office of Texas. Despite this, Joe Biden has since approved an Emergency Disaster Declaration with a 75% reimbursement for removal across 121 counties.
Further Impacts & Risks: Other States and the Caribbean
Beyond the impact of the hurricane in Texas, Beryl has started to move north, expected to bring severe rain, flooding, and even tornadoes to various areas of the Midwest and Northeast US. It’s also worth noting that some tornadoes and warnings have started to be reported and issued for parts of East Texas and Louisiana.
Record-Breaking Impacts in the Caribbean
Since July 1st, Hurricane Beryl has done even more damage in the Caribbean than the states, becoming the earliest Category 5 Hurricane on record in the Atlantic. It intensified massively from a tropical depression into a full-blown hurricane in just 42 hours, due to high ocean heat content levels. Beyond wind and rainfall, the region has been devastated by massive coastal flooding.
Grenada was hit directly, with St. Vincent and the Grenadines impacted massively, while Jamaica and the Cayman Islands have also suffered from major hurricane impacts. Across all the islands of the Caribbean, there have been around 11 deaths so far, including in Venezuela. Beyond human lives, the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique were nearly destroyed, with 98% of buildings completely wiped out.
In the long term, Hurricane Beryl is set to do serious damage to the socio-economic development of the Caribbean. For example, 2017’s Hurricane Maria cost Dominica around 800% of the country’s GDP.
United Nations and WMO Response
So far, the UN has released $ 4 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to aid in emergency relief across the Caribbean. Alongside this, the WMO has provided regular updates and meteorological advice through its Coordination Mechanism. However, despite these supportive measures, the event has illuminated the need for much better early warning systems and disaster resilience generally.
Hurricane Beryl in the Context of Climate Change
While the situation is ongoing, it’s worth considering how Hurricane Beryl lines up in the context of climate change. The intensity of the storms in the Caribbean was largely triggered by the record high sea surface temperatures in the area for the last 14 months, with this heat causing significant increases in erratic weather.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has officially predicted tropical cyclones and precipitation rates will increase due to global warming – the Houston heatwave is only a scratch on the surface. Ocean heats are expected to reach near-record levels and La Niña conditions will thrive, creating the perfect conditions for more storms of this nature. With this in mind, the Atlantic Basin, Caribbean, and Central America are all under threat.
The Need for Enhanced Preparation, Response, and Recovery
The ongoing impacts of Hurricane Beryl underpin the need for collaboration in the face of disasters, along with an enhanced commitment to environmental sustainability. The effects have spread far and wide, causing serious damage across Texas, Louisiana, and the Caribbean, with no signs that the danger is over.
At Disasters Expo USA, our thoughts are with the impacted citizens, families, communities, and businesses, and pledge to provide more updates as the situation develops.
Check out our blog for more disaster news and related information.
Written by Jacob Kohn
Information from The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Republic, The WMO, and The Hill.