How heat combined with Hurricane Beryl to cause misery in Houston

Hurricane Beryl exposed the dangers of what happens when a storm cuts off power and a heat wave follows in its wake.

What Houston faced last week is part of this new reality. A hurricane or storm will roar through and knock the grid offline. Then a heat wave will follow in its wake, suffocating — and sometimes killing — those without the means to adapt.

After Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana in 2020 — knocking out power to 600,000 customers — eight of the 27 deaths attributable to the storm were because of heat, according to the state health department.

It was a similar story for Hurricane Ida in 2021. More than 1 million customers lost power because of the storm, and the Louisiana Department of Health said 10 people died because of heat in the days that followed — more than any other single cause related to the hurricane.

That pattern is now playing out in Texas. Heat-related hospitalizations spiked after Beryl struck the Gulf Coast on July 8, and at least three people have died from the high temperatures.

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