HOUSTON — Thousands across the Greater Houston area are still in the dark after Hurricane Beryl, including the residents in the Kings River neighborhood in Kingwood.
It’s been a long nine days for residents, including Mike Sanders who said CenterPoint’s map shows they have power, but they don’t.
“We have a lot of people that are out of power and are suffering,” said Sanders. “I’m not sure of the definition of energized, but it shows it green, but yet no one has power.”
Some neighbors are borrowing generators from family and friends.
“We got it about 10:30 Wednesday night we had nothing. It was 86 degrees in my home. And if you put in the humidity, that feels like was about 100 degrees,” said Tara White.
Concern is growing, especially for the most vulnerable.
“Some of them have mobility issues, some of them have health issues. There are people with young children, babies, and they can't. They can’t withstand the heat,” said White.
Parents like Laura Overton are doing what they can.
“I have a seven-year-old who has, is prone to seizures and she's got some other issues. So, I had to send her actually on Tuesday to my parent's house, and we were under the impression from CenterPoint that we were going to have energy by Sunday evening so we came back with her,” said Overton.
Dr. David Persse, lead of Houston’s pandemic response, is helping manage a new disaster involving the heat.
“Every year we have tragedies and now, with this hurricane and people being without power, we've seen even more cases,” said Persse.
Dr. Persse is urging people to stay hydrated.
“Get rehydrated. You really need to get into air conditioning, which a lot of people don't have right now. So that is important," he said.
Meanwhile, residents are trying to stay patient while demanding accountability.
“This is a category one. This shouldn't have happened,” said Overton.