Beryl Will Cost Houston Residents in Lost Wages, Repairs

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(TNS) – Possessions are replaceable, but lives are not, Dickinson resident Leticia Alvarado always reminds herself before heading out of town before a hurricane. But that doesn’t make her post-hurricane finances any easier to digest.

Hurricane Beryl is expected to be the cause of at least $28 billion in damages and economic losses nationwide, according to a Tuesday estimate from private weather forecasting company AccuWeather. As Beryl’s floodwaters drained into the Gulf Coast, so did residents’ bank accounts as they rebuilt fences, patched roofs and headed back to work.

Alvarado, who has lived in Dickinson since 1970, didn’t didn’t think hurricanes could surprise her anymore. But the empty roads heading out of Houston before Hurricane Beryl Sunday morning were still a shock.

Still, leaving the city before each hurricane takes money. Alvarado estimates that she spent $3,000 prepping her house for the storm and booking a hotel with her husband in San Antonio.

“We were fortunate, but there are a lot of people that don’t have finances and have kids,” Alvarado said. “I’m able to (leave town,) but a lot of senior citizens, they don’t have no one. Those people, when they don’t have power, who’s going to go check on them?”

Lack of preparation

Many area residents, Centerpoint Energy and even the Houston Police Department seemed surprised by Beryl’s path through Houston . As Katy resident Ranjith Kasi looked over his fallen fence while his home sat in the dark Wednesday, he lamented at what he felt to be a lack of preparation from local leaders.

Kasi estimates he’ll spend $4,000 on hurricane recovery.

“The power is the main problem here. They did not restore the power as soon as they could,” Kasi said. “They are not prepared well for this.”

Even those who prepared for hurricanes found themselves in a vulnerable position as the hurricane veered east into Houston .

Peter Daly bought a $12,000 generator for storms such as Beryl after he moved to Alvin from Idaho two years ago. But Daly, who was hospitalized at HCA Houston Healthcare Clear Lake before the storm, still found himself without power for more than 24 hours.

Emergency lights came on at the hospital, keeping essentials running, but air conditioning and entertainment were off, Daly said, although he said it didn’t get too hot in his room.

“It was just ironic. I paid all that money for a generator…did everything people said to do and it didn’t work out for me,” Daly said.

Caught off guard

As a Katy resident who works in emergency management, Sonia Knowles knows how to prep for storms. But even she felt caught off guard as she lost power and water for days.

“I was preparing for the possibility of no water, preparing for the possibility of no electricity and just trying to have as much as I could ready,” Knowles said Wednesday morning. “But I didn’t expect three days without electricity…I did not count on (my son’s) therapy center closing. I did not count on nannies not being available, and I did not count on my office needing me to the degree that they needed me.”

Recovery will take much longer than restoring power. Her youngest son, who has special needs, has already regressed behaviorally without his routine, Knowles said.

Knowles estimates Beryl could cost her $5,000 as she braces for potential future storms this hurricane season.

“In the back of my mind is, what else can I do?” Knowles said. “What are we going to get in July and August? How do I keep my kids safe?”

Lost wages and damage costs

Residents have lost thousands in lost wages, damage costs and supplies as they wait for power and water to be restored.

“I am lucky to be a salaried employee,” Knowles said. “I cannot think of those single parents, who work for hourly wages and depend even more on daycare availability.”

Hurricane Beryl could have cost Lynn Brielmaier his life. The Alief resident, who has ALS, needs a ventilator to survive. His ventilator battery lasts for 10 hours; after Beryl, his home’s power was knocked out for nearly 16 hours. His son removed the battery from his handicap van to run a car power inverter to keep his ventilator going.

Brielmaier said his superneighborhood president was on the phone with 911 for hours before emergency responders arrived.

“(They) arrived at 8:45 p.m. , just after we got a second car battery online,” Brielmaier said via an eye scan computer. “It’s clear I need a generator, although not sure how yet.”

Tree damage is widespread and costly. An 80-foot sycamore and downed power line sat atop Tomball’s ComQuest Academy Charter High School Wednesday morning.

Board member and longtime local resident Glen Stanfield said there was no power at the school or his home Wednesday. He had to wait until an electrical crew came out to begin assessing the school’s damage.

Stanfield estimates the tree removal will take special equipment and cost around $2,000.

Post-Beryl preparation

Newcomers across Houston, are making future hurricane preparations while they’re still in the dark.

Idaho native Heather Halbert was sitting in her Conroe home with her daughter and several rescue animals when a tree hit her roof.

“It’s funny, I thought it was an earthquake because I’m from Idaho and Utah , even though I knew it was a hurricane,” Halbert said. “I had no idea what to expect.”

She’s already come up with a new evacuation plan and plans to trim more trees and buy nonperishable foods and a 72-hour survival kit.

Costs are piling up for the single mother and teacher—tree removal alone cost $700, Halbert said, and she said her homeowner’s insurance has already gone up.

“I didn’t even know it was thousands of dollars extra just for a hurricane,” Halbert said. “Just thinking about this upcoming hurricane season is stressful financially.”

Lack of trust

Some residents are turning their frustrations to area leaders as more than 1 million residents remained without power Thursday morning.

The lights came on for Daly and other patients Tuesday evening, and Daly hoped to be discharged sometime Wednesday. While he was shocked that a facility as essential as a hospital lost power for so long, he commended the doctors and nurses that braved the roads to go to work.

“To me it was just ridiculous that you don’t protect the hospital better,” Daly said. “But to say one thing, the people in this hospital…are absolutely marvelous.”

Alvarado said she felt like residents were given less information about the storm than past hurricanes.

“We’ve been here for so many years. This is the worst (response from) government officials,” Alvarado said. “Taxpayers, they’re paying your salary, so help out the people.”

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