Hurricane Beryl came ashore on the Texas coast near Matagorda early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, driving a destructive path through the Houston metro area. The storm knocked out power to roughly 2.7 million customers at its peak, one of the largest outage events in the region’s history, and left millions sweltering as heat built back in behind the storm.

The Danger After the Storm

Beryl is a stark reminder that a hurricane does not need to be a Category 4 or 5 at landfall to cripple the grid. Falling trees, saturated ground, and hurricane-force gusts brought down lines across southeast Texas, and restoration for some neighborhoods is expected to take a week or longer. With heat indices climbing past 100 degrees, an extended outage becomes a genuine health emergency.

How to Protect Your Home

• Inspect your standby generator and ensure it will activate automatically the moment utility power fails.
• Test your system under load so you know it can carry air conditioning and refrigeration.
• Confirm your natural gas or propane supply is connected and serviced.
• Consider a whole-home backup solution from Generac or Kohler for seamless protection during multi-day outages.

Stay Informed

Follow your utility’s restoration updates and local emergency management guidance, and check on neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat.