Following Beryl’s decision to cut off power to millions of people in Houston, Texas televangelist Joel Osteen converted his massive church into a cooling station, complete with air conditioning and food preparation capabilities.
As Beryl approached land as a Category 1 hurricane, it battered the fourth-largest city in the United States with winds exceeding 90 mph and dumped inches of rain on it.
On Monday, 2.7 million customers in the Houston area lost power due to strong winds.
Power is still down for 1.6 million people, despite the fact that electric personnel were prepared to start working as soon as the storm passed, according to state officials who provided a storm report on Tuesday afternoon.
The congregation of Osteen’s Lakewood Church stated on its social media accounts that it opened as a cooling station on Tuesday morning.
The church stated, “Lakewood will serve as a cooling and water distribution center, as well as a safe haven for anyone in need.”
Additionally, in order to provide supplies, emergency response kits, and cleanup assistance to the areas most affected by the storm, we are organizing our relief teams throughout the city.
Despite the pastor’s pledge to assist anyone affected by Beryl, Houstonians ridiculed Osteen, a frequent target of Internet trolls, as Beryl tore through the city.
Many people still recall the church’s widely condemned reaction to Hurricane Harvey in 2017 when a number of churches welcomed those in need of shelter seven years prior after Harvey submerged a significant portion of the city under water.
Only when criticism began to come in did Lakewood, a well-funded 17,000-seat congregation located in a former basketball arena, appear to take action.
By Tuesday, residents of Houston had shifted their ire towards state representatives and the local electricity provider, Centerpoint.
Why does a Cat 1 hurricane like #Beryl leave Houston without power for five days yet our city is known as the “Energy Capital of the World”? A full day has passed. “Fix it,” X user @FOWLKON_39 remarked.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott continues his scheduled business trip to Asia, attempted to reassure the populace that the state was making every effort to restore power as soon as possible.
Patrick disclosed at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that 11,500 additional linemen would be added to the 1,675 already on duty in order to restore power as soon as feasible.
By tomorrow, Patrick continued, “we expect to see about a million customers get power, and then more every day, but it’s going to be a multiple day recovery.”
According to officials, at least 836,000 residents who lost power on Monday had been restored.
Nevertheless, many residents were unable to prepare meals due to the power outage.
Due to the power outage, both households and businesses are affected. As a result, many residents who left their homes in search of food also discovered closed restaurants.
Even US Senator Ted Cruz, who became known as “Cancun Cruz” after leaving Texas during an ice storm in 2021 that killed at least 700 people and left the state without electricity, complained that he had to sleep on a friend’s couch because he didn’t have power.
Cruz stated, “I know there are a lot of people who are struggling to feed their families and who are dealing with the heat, so we need to make sure that moves as quickly as possible.”
After Beryl’s scolding, President Biden authorized a federal emergency disaster declaration for Texas.
