More than a million people are still without power in Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States

More than a million people still without electricity Houstonthe fourth largest city in the United States, A few days after the Beryl Storm, This has raised questions about the strength of the city’s infrastructure and the risk to life posed by the high temperatures.

The focus of criticism and questioning is on private gas and energy companies CenterPoint Energy Responsible for serving nearly all of Houston’s population.

Acting Governor of Texas, And Patrick, The state has “requested an investigation into CenterPoint,” the department announced in a news release Thursday.

As they try to recover from the devastation of Beryl’s departure Eight people died and dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed. Houston residents also have to deal with a lack of light in the middle of summer due to rainfall. Temperature over 40 degrees Celsius.

Some non-governmental organizations are asking for donations of “water, food and generators” to meet the needs of residents.

Gwen Jones, The Brazoria County director of Climate Dialogue, an environmental justice organization southeast of Houston, reported in a statement that Beryl left residents without power, without cell phones, and with little to no contact with government officials. “This hurricane is worse than any I’ve ever seen in my lifetime,” the activist said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) released a City high temperature alert, Recognizing that the lack of “air conditioning” will increase the risk of heat stroke in the region.

Mayor of Houston, John Whitmire, Directly criticized the magazine’s ranking of the top 500 US public companies, CenterPoint wealth.

“They have to do better,” the politician said at a press conference on Wednesday. “We will hold them accountable.”

at the same time, Kevin Cole, The mayor of Pearland, one of the suburbs that is part of the Houston metropolitan area, went a step further and asked state lawmakers to summon CenterPoint’s CEO to a congressional meeting.

“The company’s leadership has let down our customers in Houston,” Cole wrote on his Facebook account, blaming CenterPoint’s CEO. Jason Wells, Make a “catastrophic” decision.

An executive at an energy company, Brad Tutunjian, The situation was also reported to the City Council on Wednesday, with assurances ‘They are doing their best’ Restoring power to people.

In turn, he noted that they were “very prepared” for the storm, but claimed Storms are “unpredictable”.

CenterPoint said in a statement Thursday that it hopes to restore service to 400,000 people by Friday afternoon and another 350,000 by the end of Sunday.

The company explained that Beryl “caused significant structural damage” across the company’s service area, including “on the coast, where parts of the electrical system required reconstruction.”