Disabled People Aren’t Safe in My City

Houston’s repeated power crises are putting disabled lives at risk.

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Houston, Texas, the city where I’ve lived my entire life, is currently experiencing a power crisis. After Hurricane Beryl hit, over a million Houstonians were left without power. Due to a lack of preparation, Centerpoint Energy has been slow to restore electricity. According to their estimates, over 500,000 people still won’t have power a week from now.

If you’re feeling a sense of deja vu, you might have confused this incident with the derecho that struck Houston in May. After the storm, over 550,000 people were powerless, and the city took over a week and a half to restore everyone’s power. Eight people died.

You might also have confused the current situation with the Big Freeze of 2021. After multiple uncharacteristic cold snaps, the Texas power grid failed catastrophically. Over four million people lost power, and hundreds died, many freezing to death in their homes.

If you couldn’t tell, these power crises have become a recurring problem for Houston and Texas as a whole. Decades of deregulation have removed safeguards meant to prevent disasters like these, and companies like Centerpoint have been allowed to create monopolies uncontested. As a result, Houston’s power infrastructure has…