Sarah Grunau
Remnants of the Category 1 hurricane aren’t hard to spot a week after it battered the city— uprooted trees and piles of yard debris are scattered in front yards across the metropolitan. But a stretch of Elgin Street and Lockwood Drive appears almost frozen in time as more than a foot of static floodwater still stretches across the intersection.
More than 2.26 million CenterPoint Energy customers were out of power after Beryl touched down in Houston last week. Some Houstonians are still waiting for their lights to come back on as state officials have taken an approach to criticize and demand better from the major utility company. Despite officials pointing the finger at CenterPoint’s storm unpreparedness, the city’s stormwater pumps— which are vital to Houston’s ability to drain water out of the streets after major flooding events— are operated by electricity, Erin Jones, a Houston Public Works spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Our stormwater pumps require power to operate and the pump along 4400 Gulf Freeway currently does not have power,” she said. “Our team investigated the location and found no recent 311 requests for drainage investigations at this location.”
Temporary barricades have been blocking off the road that intersects with Spur 5 since July 8, when the category one hurricane left many city streets flooded. The roadways meet at a dip underneath Interstate 45 on the north tip of the University of Houston campus. And while it took no longer than a few days for other city streets that bore the brunt of Beryl’s floodwaters to drain, the roadway has remained underwater more than a week after the storm with no clear restoration timeline.
Houston Police Department officers have operated in shifts to patrol the intersection 24 hours a day.
It’s a corridor well traversed by METRO buses that frequent the Eastwood Transit Center on the corner of the blocked section of the road. Some METRO commuters have reported buses taking up to 30 minutes longer to re-route around the roadway.
It’s unclear how long the road will be shut down. Jones said people should report streets not draining properly more than 48 hours after a storm to 311.
“Road conditions have improved, but these three routes are among a handful that still have detours directly related to the hurricane,” Delony said.
