More than 2.4 million customers were without power Monday night after historic record-breaking Hurricane Beryl landed in heavily populated SE Texas. Residents struggled with moist, soupy heat and a lack of air conditioning overnight.
Today, even hotter heat arrives and is expected to last until Thursday. The danger for the populace may result in the deaths of many residents before power is restored, which could take a couple of weeks. Few to no cooling centers are available. Houston and other lowland cities are still submerged by flood waters.
Restoring power to millions of Texans slammed by the deadly and destructive storm Beryl could take days or even weeks, posing a dangerous scenario for residents who will not have air conditioning as sweltering heat settles over the state.
Beryl slammed into southern Texas as a Category 1 hurricane Monday, knocking out power to more than 2.5 million homes and leaving at least 8 people dead in Texas and Louisiana.
The storm – now a tropical depression – unleashed flooding rains and winds that transformed roads into rushing rivers, ripped through power lines and tossed trees onto homes, roads and cars. As it hurtles toward the Midwest Tuesday, it threatens to trigger more flooding and tornadoes along its path.
As difficult recovery and cleanup efforts are underway in southeast Texas, including the Houston area, extreme heat will bear down on the region Tuesday and Wednesday, creating hazardous conditions for those working outdoors or without adequate cooling.
A heat advisory is in place Tuesday for southeast Texas, where heat indices – a measure of how the body feels under both heat and humidity – could hit 105 degrees and high temperatures in the 90s are forecast across the region.
WCK also provided food to the devasted Windward Caribbean islands, Jamaica, and the Caymans in Beryl’s path before the storm moved into the Gulf of Mexico and struck the Yucatan and Texas.
Where is Ted Cruz? No one knows precisely, but he is believed to be at an ill-timed vacation resort in California. Governor Abbot is reportedly in South Korea.
Was the My Pillow guy not available?
Cruz reshared an emergency relief video made by local businessman Jim McIngvale, better known as Mattress Mack to Houstonites, offering help should the storm take a turn for the worse. Cruz urged people to stay safe ahead of Hurricane Beryl’s landfall.
“Mack is an American hero,” Cruz wrote on X. “Stay safe & avoid high water as the hurricane makes landfall.”
But sending a message of care to Texas residents reminded too many critics of 2021, when Cruz ditched his constituents—and his dog—during a historic winter storm to take a conveniently timed trip to Cancun, Mexico. That record cold snap, and Texas’s failure to mitigate damage to critical infrastructure, resulted in the deaths of 246 people.
Cruz’s vacation mishap also led him to propose legislation to reallocate airport security toward high-powered officials, a move that would have made it significantly harder for the press to catch him (and other lawmakers or judges) in efforts to bail during future bad weather. Ultimately, Cruz’s amendment was blocked in April by Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson.
It's just incredible. Mack is MAGA, but he helps the Texans when a crisis hits. He can’t do it all, so where is the cavalry, Ted and Greg?
Cruz's Senate seat is in danger.
Ted Cruz may not have as big a lead as he would have been hoping for in the race for his Texas Senate seat, according to a poll.
A Manhattan Institute survey of 600 likely voters in Texas found that Cruz has a 3 point lead (46 percent to 43 percent) over his Democratic rival, rep. Colin Allred. This margin is down from a double-digit lead the incumbent Republican has enjoyed in previous Texas senate surveys.
When broken down further, the Manhattan Institute poll found that Allred has an 11-point lead over Cruz among female voters (49 percent to 38 percent) as well as an eight-point lead over the potentially crucial independent voters (43 percent to 35 percent).
The polling group also suggests that Cruz may find himself in a "tight race" partially because of Allred's favorability. The Democrat holds a net favorability rating of plus 12 points, compared to minus nine for the GOP Senator.
We need the Senate Seat in Texas. We are oh so close.
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Allred for Senate
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