News Wrap: Ongoing power outages after hurricane leave many frustrated in Texas heat

Geoff Bennett:

The lingering impact of Hurricane Beryl starts the day's other headlines.

More than 800,000 customers in the metro Houston area still don't have power. That's left many hot and frustrated during what has been a blistering heat wave this past week.

With no power and no air conditioning and perhaps none before next week, many residents in and around Houston are reaching their own boiling points.

Woman:

How in the world can it take almost a week, and then you're talking until Saturday, maybe Sunday, maybe next week? How is that possible?

Geoff Bennett:

CenterPoint, the primary electric utility in the area, which is working to restore power, said more than 400,000 businesses and homes might not have electricity even by early next week.

Many are struggling to find refuge from the sweltering heat or have access to food and clean drinking water in some cases.

Erica Robinson, Houston, Texas, Resident:

I'm about to lose the resources that I have and I'm about to lose all the energy that I have trying to survive.

Raquel Desimone, Houston, Texas, Resident:

I have been here since 2000-something. So I went through Rita and Ike, Imelda, Harvey. And then this year, my complex has lost power twice without hurricanes, so sort of used to it. It's really frustrating.

Geoff Bennett:

Many Houston area hospitals and emergency rooms have been jam-packed for days, since many patients could not be released home safely. And some were treated at makeshift clinics at the NRG Park sports complex.

CenterPoint says it's restored power to over 1.4 million customers, faster than other utilities have during similar storms. It also says it pledges to restore power to 80 percent of those who were affected by Sunday night.

Paul Lock, Manager of Local Government Relations, CenterPoint Energy: I know it's hot. I'm thankful for the rain to cool things off. Everyone here is exhausted, but we will continue to work around the clock to get everyone restored as quickly as possible.

Geoff Bennett:

But the company is getting heavy criticism from residents, businesses and lawmakers who argue it should have been better prepared.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Governor Greg Abbott is away on a work trip, says he plans to hold CenterPoint accountable for their mistakes.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX):

But, right now, I want every person at CenterPoint to have one job. Get the power back on. We will talk about what happened before the storm later. Just get the power back on.

Geoff Bennett:

Hurricane Beryl is the latest in a number of storms that have wreaked havoc in the Houston area in just a few weeks. A series of winter storms in 2021 also crippled Texas' energy grid and left millions of people without heat or power for several days.

Michael Webber, a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin, says climate change is accelerating the problems in Texas and for the national energy grid too.

Michael Webber, Professor of Energy Resources, University of Texas at Austin: A lot of our grid was built up decades or a century ago, when the weather was milder, and the weather is becoming more intense and frequent with its storms, which includes wind and water and drought and freeze and heat wave and everything. And so we have to build that grid of the future.

Geoff Bennett:

CenterPoint is proposing a $2 billion resiliency plan to improve the grid. Webber says steps like strengthening transmission poles with steel or concrete or moving some power lines underground may be necessary.

But, to do that, he says, voters and politicians have to acknowledge and confront the realities of climate change in a state where that's not always popular.

Michael Webber:

The investments to harden the grid are expensive. They cost billions of dollars. But they save lives and they avoid outages and they save money in the long run. And we have to choose between paying money up front to make the system better or paying money later, when the system fails.

Geoff Bennett:

After thunderstorms this weekend, which could slow repairs, temperatures are expected to return to the 90s starting on Sunday.

The lasting effects of Beryl are also being felt nearly 2,000 miles away, in Vermont, where cleanup has started after devastating and deadly flash floods. Beryl dumped a half-foot of rain on parts of the state this week. At least two people died when their vehicles were submerged in the floods. Entire neighborhoods are still underwater.

Where the floods have receded, roadways had fallen into sinkholes and communities were caked in mud. Vermont was hit by flooding at exactly this time last year.

Grant Nelson, Vermont Resident:

What I'd say is that anybody that denies climate change can get a dose of this and decide for themselves.

Geoff Bennett:

Vermont's governor says it'll take several more days to know the full extent of the damage.

In the Middle East, Israeli forces have pulled back from Gaza City, leaving behind scenes of destruction. Fires were still burning today, as Palestinians returned home to check the damage. Civil defense workers say that dozens of bodies were found on the streets and in collapsed buildings.

Earlier in the week, Israel ordered all Palestinians to leave the area, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there. Most of Gaza City's population fled earlier in the war, but the U.N. estimates that some 300,000 people remain in the surrounding area.

AT&T said today that a security breach in 2022 affected nearly all of its cell phone customers and many users of its landline and wireless networks. The company says roughly 109 million customers' accounts were affected. Their data was downloaded to a third-party platform over a five-month period in 2022.

AT&T says the compromised data includes records of phone calls and texts, but it does not involve the content of those calls or sensitive information like birthdays or Social Security numbers.

In New Mexico, the judge and Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial has dismissed the case against him. Baldwin's defense team had alleged that prosecutors hid evidence about the ammunition that killed the cinematographer on the film Rust in 2021. Baldwin had been holding the gun when it went off during rehearsals.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed with the defense, saying that — quote — "The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy." Baldwin faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted. The 66-year-old had pleaded not guilty, saying he did not know the revolver contained a live round.

Officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have announced details of the first person to be identified from a mass grave stemming from the city's 1921 race massacre. C.L. Daniel was a World War I veteran who was passing through Tulsa at the time of the attack.

Forensic experts have collected DNA from a total of 30 sets of remains. They're from the more than 120 graves that were found during searches that started back in 2020. As many as 300 people were killed when a white mob destroyed what was then known as Black Wall Street.

City officials hope today's announcement will bring some comfort to his family.

G.T. Bynum (R), Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma: As a parent, I can't help but think about his mom, Mrs. Daniel, who knew her brave son had been killed, but never knew what became of his remains. Today, I hope that this generation of Tulsans can appreciate that you have helped this family find their relative after he was missing for 103 years.

Geoff Bennett:

The city of Tulsa and field experts will start a fourth excavation at the Oaklawn Cemetery starting the week of July 22.

On Wall Street today, stocks rose on bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September. The Dow Jones industrial average touched an all-time high during Friday's session before closing just before — just above, rather, the 40,000-point level. The Nasdaq jumped more than 100 points to close near an all-time high, and the S&P 500 also posted gains to wrap up the week.

And a passing of note from the field of health care. Gail Wilensky has died. Wilensky oversaw the Medicare and Medicaid programs during former President George H.W. Bush's administration and was a senior adviser to the president. And she appeared many times on this program, including this clip from 2009 with Judy Woodruff. She would join us to talk about the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion and more.

Gail Wilensky was 81 years old.