HOUSTON – Resilience and frustration in Fort Bend County on Day 4 of recovery after Hurricane Beryl swept through southeast Texas.
Fort Bend County Judge KP George said he was inspired by the community’s resilience and the sheriff warned they won’t tolerate any violence after someone pulled a gun on a CenterPoint worker.
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“We had a call that a CenterPoint energy worker had a gun pulled on them,” said Sheriff Eric Fagan. “You have to realize CenterPoint called people outside of the state to come in to help with this emergency. We will not tolerate them being abused let alone having a gun pulled on them.” Fagan said charges will be filed against anyone who gets violent.
“I understand our citizens are frustrated, tired and they are struggling without power,” George said, adding CenterPoint was working diligently on restoring power.
“For those of you who suffered losses, our hearts go out to you and we stand with you through this trying time,” George said. “Together we will rebuild and emerge even stronger.”
Safety is a priority, the judge and sheriff both said, asking people to really pay attention especially on the road with so many traffic lights out.
Monday there were 353,292 customers without power in the county and today around 12:30 p.m. the number of power outages stood at 87,168. Emergency officials said they have a CenterPoint representative giving constant guidance inside their Emergency Operations Center.
“Now, CenterPoint has also put out an inundation map and that’s caused some confusion with people and some heartache as they read this map,” said Emergency Management Officer Greg Babst. “Please take this map as information only and the CenterPoint response is out there doing the best they can because the stall in a lot of this power is because this was wind-driven damage where there are major power poles down. There are major transformers down. So the quick fixes were done because there wasn’t major damage.”
Babst asked people who have issues with power to please go to one of the 12 shelters and cooling centers open. You can access them here or jump lower down in the article for locations.
Debris pickup should begin next week. You’ll need to separate disaster debris into the following piles:
- Construction and Demolition Materials
- Electronic Waste
- Household Hazardous Waste
- White Goods
- Vegetative materials (trees, limbs, brush, leaves, etc.)
Shelters have about 110 people at the moment and that number ebbs and flows, George said, adding there are numerous centers for people to cool off around the county in addition to cooling buses and all that information is posted on the county’s website.
Cooling centers:
- Attack Poverty | Friends of North Rosenberg 1908 Avenue E, Rosenberg, TX 77471 Monday - Saturday | 9 AM - 5 PM
- Fort Bend County Fairgrounds - Building c 4310 TX-36 S, Rosenberg, TX 77471 Open 24/7
- Fort Bend County Fairgrounds - Building D 4310 TX-36 S, Rosenberg, TX 77471 Monday - Sunday | 9 AM - 5 PM
- Islamic Center | Masjid As Sabireen 610 Brand Lane, Stafford, TX 77477 (hours and days not listed)
The county has 8 other locations listed on their website and we’re working to find out if they’re still open because the dates and hours listed are for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Judge George said county leaders will decide Thursday afternoon when the government can get back to normal business. All county offices remained closed Thursday.