07-09-2024

Hurricane Beryl caused widespread outages Monday morning. Over an estimated 2.1 Million CenterPoint customers in Houston alone were without power.

Locally the storm produced major outages with over 10,267 Entergy customers and 3,754 Sam Houston Electric customers without power in Walker County.

Elsewhere in the service area Entergy reported 152,048 Montgomery County Entergy customers without power.

Beryl left most of Southern Walker County without power. The storm rapidly lost intensity upon entering higher elevations in Northern areas of Montgomery County and Southern Walker County. Huntsville was greatly spared the wrath of the storm as the eye of the storm dramatically shifted.

As of 6:30 PM Monday, approximately 247,000 Entergy Texas customers were without power. Entergy Texas stated “a workforce of more than 1,300 damage assessors, vegetation crews, line workers, and support personnel have been mobilized to diligently restore power as quickly and safely as possible.”

People shouldn’t attempt to clear debris in contact with power lines, even though the power may appear to be off. A team of utility crews will be in the area over the next several days clearing debris from utility infrastructure and restoring the power.

Be patient and plan ahead as most restoration will likely take days, instead of hours due to the scope of the damage to the regionally impacted infrastructure.

The National Hurricane Center now predicts the eye of Beryl to pass near Huntsville. The Huntsville Area is predicted to receive the dirty side of the storm which is expected to be upgraded soon.

Huntsville area residents should secure all outside items to prevent flying debris and projectiles. Beryl shifts course closer to Huntsville. The Huntsville area can expect sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph. Wind gust of 80-90 MPH may occur, dangerous lightning, and the risk of tornadoes. This storm may produce tornadoes, dangerous lightning, and life threatening flash floods for our area.

Local fire & rescue crews were dispatched to the scene to free the 45 year old female from the vehicle. The injured female was transported to the hospital by EMS. The accident is under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety.