Hurricane Beryl caused at least 20 Houston-area deaths, with half power outage-related – Houston Public Media

More than 2.2 million homes, schools and businesses – representing about 80% of the electricity customers served by CenterPoint Energy – lost power at the peak of the Category 1 hurricane that was particularly damaging because it passed almost directly over Houston. Hundreds of thousands remained without electricity more than a week afterward, and there still were about 10,000 outages as of Thursday afternoon.

Six of the 13 storm-related deaths in Houston and Harris County were caused by heat exposure tied to a power outage, according to information released by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Chief investigator John Florence of the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office said Thursday that electricity losses contributed to all three of the confirmed, hurricane-related deaths there, adding that doctors were still working to determine the causes of death of three other people who were found in homes without power.

In Matagorda County, where the hurricane made landfall before proceeding north through Houston, a 60-year-old Bay City man who was bed-ridden and paralyzed from the waist down died from heatstroke on the evening of July 8, in a home that lost power, according to county spokesperson Mitch Thames.

“It’s tragic,” Thames said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the family.”

RELATED: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick fronts special senate committee after CenterPoint’s lackluster Beryl response

The Houston-area death toll from Beryl – which according to the Associated Press killed at least 11 people in the Caribbean before swirling its way through the Gulf of Mexico and into Texas – could continue to climb in the aftermath of the storm.

Scott Yao, a spokesperson for the Fort Bend County Medical Examiner’s Office, said Thursday that no storm-related deaths there had been confirmed – yet. The eye of the storm passed over the county, which is southwest of Houston.

“There might be some, but we’re still gathering information right now,” Yao said.

Houston Police Department

Three of the storm victims in Harris County drowned, with two Houston men, including Houston Police Department employee Russell Richardson, getting caught in vehicles that were submerged by floodwaters. Two other Harris County residents were killed by fallen trees on the day of the hurricane, and two Houston men died in the days that followed when they fell while trimming damaged trees.

All three of the storm-related deaths that have been confirmed in Montgomery County, which is north of Houston, were caused by fallen trees on July 8, according to Judge Wayne Mack, the Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1. Two of the victims were apparently homeless and inside a tent in Magnolia, Mack said, and another man who died was struck by a falling oak tree while riding his tractor in the eastern part of the county.

Mack said Richard Ross, 41, was on his way home after using his tractor to help clear a nearby road.

“He was being a good Samaritan,” Mack said. “He was helping neighbors clear trees from the roadway so EMS and fire could get through. The storm wasn’t quite over.”

Ross was the youngest hurricane victim in the Houston area, according to local authorities. The other 19 people were age 50 or older, and 13 of the victims were in their 60s or 70s.

Below is a list of the 20 storm-related deaths that have been confirmed by Houston-area authorities: