More than 100 homes have been damaged after a tornado touched down in a residential area outside Houston, authorities in Texas said Monday.
No injuries were reported.
Photos and drone video posted on Facebook by the Harris County Precinct 3 constable showed roofs with shingles ripped off. Some debris blocked roads.
The damage affected the Memorial Northwest neighborhood, according to the office of Mark Herman, the constable.
The Houston Fire Department dispatched five members of its saw team to cut up and remove toppled trees, spokesperson Rustin Rawlings said.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for southeastern Texas, including Houston, until 1 a.m. Tuesday. It also issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of southeastern Texas.
While the National Weather Service will have to survey the area to officially assign a rating for the strength of the Harris County tornado, atmospheric parameters were certainly in place for a tornadic setup.
The Houston and Harris County area was dealing with unusually warm and humid conditions for this time of year, with temperatures in the upper 70s and lower 80s for much of the afternoon, and dew points as high as the low 70s, meaning it was very muggy.
Those are two of the primary ingredients needed to produce severe weather, and the other is a lifting mechanism, which came in the form of both a warm front and a cold front moving through the state. All things combined prompted a tornado watch for the afternoon and into the overnight hours for Southeast Texas, which led to several tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the day.
Conditions are expected to improve over the next few days, followed by the return of rain and storms this weekend.
Texas voters appeared to support all 17 constitutional amendments on Tuesday’s ballot, as each of the measures — including tax exemptions and bans, a $20 million investment into the state’s water supply, bail reform and dementia research — held strong leads late Tuesday.
With only early votes, mail-in ballots and 30 out of 600 precincts reporting in Harris County just after 11 p.m., it appeared local voters narrowly rejected Proposition 6, which bans new taxes on security transactions, and Proposition 17, a tax exemption for property involved with border security infrastructure near the Texas-Mexico line.
But it’s the statewide numbers that count, and political experts say constitutional amendments rarely fail.
Proposition 1 creates an endowment for 11 Texas State Technical Colleges, including one in Fort Bend County, to purchase loans and buildings. This measure supports a skilled workforce and broader career choices in the college system.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 68.79 percent approval.
About 66.46 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 2 prohibits the establishment of a capital gains tax on assets like real estate, investments and personal property. Critics say it protects wealthy Texans and could stunt the state’s economic growth.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 68.19 percent approval.
About 56.6 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 3 requires the denial of bail for individuals accused of violent felony offenses. The measure supports denying bail for high-risk defendants but creates a financial barrier for poor Texans, increasing the likelihood of overcrowded jails and neglect of mental health issues.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 63.66 percent approval.
About 61.01 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 4dedicates the first $1 billion per fiscal year of sales tax revenue exceeding $46.5 billion to the Texas Water Fund over the next 20 years. Voters supported funding to increase the Lone Star State’s water supply and repair aging infrastructure.
Critics expressed concerns about spending mandates in the constitution and whether the funds would be allocated fairly by a three-person board appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 70.6 percent approval.
About 67.23 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 5 exempts Texans from taxes on animal feed. The amendment was advertised as potential assistance for farmers and ranchers who are already dealing with rising costs.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 65.78 percent approval.
About 52.22 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 6 bans new taxes on securities transactions and financial market operators (aimed at those who work in the stock market today or will work in the new Texas Stock Trade in Dallas). Critics said this was a tax break for the rich and would benefit only the wealthiest Texans.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 57.92 percent approval.
About 46.2 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 7 provides a property tax exemption for spouses of veterans who died in the line of duty, if the widow or widower has not remarried.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 86.92 percent approval.
About 84.32 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
As of late Tuesday evening, it appeared likely that all 17 constitutional amendments would be approved. Credit: April Towery
Proposition 8 bans taxes on estate and inheritance. Texas does not have estate taxes, and a ban would prevent future regulations that could level the playing field to shift the tax burden from working families to wealthy Texans.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 74.91 percent approval.
About 63.6 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 9 is a tax exemption for up to $125,000 worth of business inventory or equipment. The measure is viewed as an incentive for small businesses that could also help the Texas economy.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 67.1 percent approval.
About 55.88 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 10 is a temporary tax exemption for homeowners whose properties were destroyed by fire. While most property owners have home insurance, this exemption could offer extra support.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 90.18 percent approval.
About 86.87 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 11 increases school property tax exemptions from $10,000 to $60,000 for elderly and disabled homeowners. The amendment provides support for about 2 million homeowners who are likely to be on a fixed income.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 79.55 percent approval.
About 75.38 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 12 expands the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates judicial misconduct and reviews the termination of judgeships. Approval of this measure means new members would have less power than governor-appointed residents, which critics say could politicize the judicial process. Supporters say it will promote accountability.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 64.49 percent approval.
About 54.25 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 13 increases a school property tax exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 for all homeowners, saving an average of about $490 per year. The state will pay for an estimated $2.7 billion in revenue losses to school districts for the 2026-27 school year.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 81.78 percent approval.
About 76.01 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 14 will establish the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, providing $3 billion in funding for dementia research and prevention to study brain-related conditions. Critics have said that brain research should be funded by the private sector.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 68.13 percent approval.
About 68.24 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 15 codifies “parental rights” language in the state constitution. Critics say this could weaponize the Constitution to propagate right-wing culture wars involving LGBTQ+ families, book bans, and what’s taught in public schools. Parental rights are already outlined in federal case law.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 72.23 percent approval.
About 63.85 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 16 adds citizenship requirements to the Constitution and is redundant because U.S. citizenship is already a requirement to register to vote in Texas. Critics say it is an inflammatory response aligned with anti-immigration policies and stokes fear about non-citizen voting.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 74.94 percent approval.
About 69.37 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Proposition 17 provides a tax exemption for property involved with border security infrastructure near the Texas-Mexico line. Critics say this could incentivize support for border security infrastructure and shift the tax burden onto other property owners.
Statewide, the measure was leading with 60.86 percent approval.
About 48.08 percent of Harris County early voters supported the measure.
Alma Castillo has worked as a therapist for the Harris Center for 12 years, and while her job is safe for now, more than 180 of her colleagues have been laid off since September, creating what she says are catastrophic conditions for a region already in the throes of a mental health crisis.
“The services we provide are essential to the community,” Castillo told the Houston Press. “With everything that is going on in the world right now — people losing their SNAP benefits, issues with people being targeted by ICE — everyone is anxious and on edge. If there are not enough services, it’s going to cost the county more because it will lead to more hospitalizations, homelessness and people going to jail, things that could have been mediated with the proper mental health services.”
A county official who asked not to be identified said Thursday the situation isn’t as dire as it’s been advertised. About 83 of the employees whose salaries were funded by the ARPA grant were shifted into other vacant positions at the Harris Center almost immediately, the official clarified.
Castillo said that’s true, but employees are still questioning their long-term job security, and service cuts have also been made, including the closure of a children’s wellness clinic in northeast Harris County. Clients served by that facility now have to drive to the opposite end of the county or stop receiving assistance, Castillo said.
Harris Center CEO Wayne Young said the layoffs were a result of federal cuts and would not impact core operations.
“Several programs were affected by these changes — some because they were designed as short-term initiatives, others through the reduction of specific positions and programs that have been fully discontinued,” Young said in an email to the Press. “In each case, we focused on how we could continue meeting the needs of those we serve through other ongoing programs.”
Drastic Medicaid cuts are also anticipated as a result of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July. The Texas Hospital Association predicted that the federal cuts would have catastrophic effects on mental healthcare but the full impact remains to be seen. The Harris Center is funded in part by Medicaid and accepts it as a form of payment for services.
Harris County, which funds a portion of the Center’s expenses, recently adopted a $2.7 billion budget that included pay raises for law enforcement but slashed services and vacant positions countywide. The county asked its departments, including the Harris Center, to cut their budgets by 10 percent.
Some Harris Center employees got their layoff notices the day the county budget was adopted, Castillo said. Several of the workers ended their employment on October 8; others will get to stay on for six months. Positions affected by the layoffs included therapists, crisis line workers, case managers, program managers, psychiatry techs and nursing staff.
Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who joined County Judge Lina Hidalgo in voting against the county budget, said last month that the document is morally and fiscally irresponsible.
“While families already spend more than they can afford on rent and groceries, we froze or eliminated hundreds of positions in public health, housing, and community services, forcing residents to do more with less,” Ellis said in a September 25 statement. “As the Trump Administration and the state of Texas escalate mass incarceration and strip away civil liberties, our budget doubles down, discontinuing community-based support that could keep youth out of the system.”
That sentiment was echoed this week by Castillo, vice president of United Workers of Harris Center, a local union that organized about two years ago and “became official” in January. About 30 union members showed up at a Harris Center board meeting earlier this week, asking that services and jobs be reinstated and the agency’s $374 million budget be re-evaluated.
Belinda Aguilar, president of Communications Workers of America Local 6222, said at the board meeting that every Harris Center program, from crisis response to early childhood services, depends on the people who show up every day to serve.
“When you cut staff, you’re not just cutting positions. You’re cutting access to care for people who need it the most,” she said. “The truth is, layoffs don’t save money. They create turnover, slow down services and cost the county more in the long run.”
“These workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Aguilar added. “This means honest communication, fair notice and real severance.”
Union members showed up in force at a Harris Center board meeting this week to protest mass layoffs. Credit: Alma Castillo
In a petition that now has about 200 signatures, the union lays out specific demands, including 12 weeks’ notice of layoffs, job search assistance and six months of healthcare coverage for those who have lost their jobs.
Board members did not respond to the offer of collaboration during this week’s meeting. An agency official told Castillo that they couldn’t discuss the matter because it wasn’t on the agenda.
United Workers of Harris Center supported Hilton Americas–Houston workers who went on a 40-day strike and successfully negotiated higher wages and better working conditions. But because Harris Center workers don’t have a contract and are public sector employees, they can’t even use the word “negotiate,” Castillo said.
“We don’t have those rights to strike or negotiate,” she said. “We have to collaborate and communicate. I know we’re early on, but so far, that’s been a challenge. We have to get open records and reach out to different people to get answers. I feel like we have people on the board who are supportive. I just don’t know how they can resolve this and what all is being said or done.”
According to Young, the Harris Center board has ultimate authority over the organization’s budget but is only involved in hiring decisions related to the CEO.
The union has been meeting individually with county commissioners, and Castillo said she’s slated to make a presentation before the Harris Center board’s governance committee on November 11.
“We’re letting them know what our concerns are and wanting to figure out how we can create stopgaps to save jobs, but, you know, we’re workers. We’re volunteers. We don’t have all the info,” she said.
Castillo works as a children’s therapist, helping kids who suffer from depression and anxiety at schools across the Greater Houston area, with a clinic in Pasadena. Her job isn’t in jeopardy because the funding stream through which she’s paid is intact. The layoffs, however, affect everybody, she said.
“We’re the largest provider of mental health and IDD services in the state,” Castillo said. “So many things are so important to keeping our community healthy. Just like law enforcement or traditional health care services, I think we’re at that same level.”
Over the past 10 years, the workforce at Harris Center has increased by 307 employees, but the number of clients has spiked by more than 22,000, Castillo said.
Protecting the jobs of healthcare workers equates to protecting lives, union members said at the Harris Center board meeting.
“When you attack the workforce, you attack the community,” said CWA District 6 vice president Derrick Osobase. “The people at the Harris Center are the ones holding this safety net together, and we’re not going to stand by while critical care for Harris County families is cut.”
According to its website, the Harris Center employs about 2,500 workers and serves more than 80,000 people per year. The Center operates a psychiatric emergency center, jail diversion center, crisis call line, law enforcement co-responder teams, offender/re-entry clinics, juvenile detention services, detox for homeless people and a dual diagnosis residential treatment center
“The essential programs our neighbors rely on are only possible because of skilled and dedicated workers,” Castillo said. “The [layoffs] disrupt critical care, increase wait times, and push more people into crisis.”
Young said that while “recent changes to our funding have required careful adjustments, our commitment to serving Harris County and those who depend on us remains unchanged.”
“The Harris Center continues to focus on delivering essential, high-quality care to the individuals and families who need us most,” he said.
Castillo said she’s received no indication that any of the laid-off workers will be reinstated.
“I have hope,” she said. “The populations we serve, a lot of them are already vulnerable. If we’re not there, how are people going to get help? We’re not trying to make people afraid or more anxious than they already are, but this is the reality we’re in, and if we don’t take action, I’m afraid it’s going to get worse.”
Since Donald Trump took office in January, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee has sued the federal government four times, saying Tuesday that it’s the only way to get the attention of an administration that has repeatedly, illegally, broken promises to low-income Texans.
Menefee announced this week that he filed the latest lawsuit in federal court demanding that the $7 billion Solar for All program be reinstated. The grant would have offered $59 million to Harris County, the largest Solar for All award in the nation. Earlier this year, the county attorney filed two lawsuits against the federal government related to healthcare funding and one to challenge federal workforce layoffs.
“In the two that were about money, we’re 2 and 0,” Menefee told the Houston Press on Tuesday. “Over the refugee health funds, the funding was restored. Over the public health funds in the wake of COVID-19, the funding was restored. In the federal layoffs case we got a temporary injunction that blocked the federal government from continuing the layoffs. That went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which eliminated the injunction.”
“In many instances, with the Trump administration, the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing,” he added. “They’ll eliminate funding; they will get rid of programs; they will temporarily freeze programs. It is 100 percent illegal, and they’re not truly made aware of that until they’re hauled in front of a judge and they have to answer for what they’ve done.”
Menefee’s latest action is an effort to salvage about $250 million that was awarded to the nonpartisan Texas Solar for All Coalition, designed to lower electricity bills, create clean energy jobs, and expand access to affordable solar power across disadvantaged communities.
Grant recipients would have had their energy bills slashed by about $500 per year, and the funding would have covered solar and battery installation for thousands of residents in neighborhoods that experience blackouts and high heat, said Menefee, who is running for U.S. Congressional District 18 in November.
The Solar for All program was approved as part of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. The federal government rescinded the grant — illegally, according to Menefee — in August of this year, saying the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” eliminated the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority and funding for the program.
Menefee said Congress created the program and promised funding to local governments and families across the country. They can’t just walk it back, he said.
“This isn’t just another policy disagreement,” he said. “It’s a clear-cut case of federal overreach, an illegal attempt to cancel a program that Congress already appropriated the funds for. They never supported this program, so they made up a justification for killing it.”
U.S. Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said at a Monday press conference that work had already started in the communities that were awarded Solar for All grants when the funds were rescinded.
“In Houston, Port Arthur and Waco, training programs were already underway to certify Texans in solar installation and energy efficiency,” Fletcher said. “The coalition had already begun building resilience hubs, community centers, and homes equipped with solar and battery backup to keep the lights on during hurricanes or potential grid failures. For communities like ours along the Gulf Coast, these hubs mean the difference between safety and suffering in the next storm.”
The Solar For All program would have offered measurable savings for families that have trouble paying the bills, “especially in times like these when prices are going up because of other terrible policies implemented by the Trump administration,” the congresswoman added.
When the cuts were announced, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called programs like Solar for All “a grift and a boondoggle,” citing a need for environmental regulation. About 90 percent of the EPA workforce has been furloughed during the government shutdown that began October 1, so it’s unclear whether a response to Harris County’s lawsuit will be forthcoming.
Menefee told the Press on Tuesday that the lawsuit and media events aren’t part of a symbolic pep rally; the goal is to get the funds reinstated.
“We want a ruling that the EPA’s decision violates the law,” he said. “We’re taking action to ensure that the courts hold the federal government accountable. The elimination of this program is illegal .My hope is that the court requires the EPA to reinstate the program.”
Hundreds of applications were submitted for the competitive program, and several county leaders worked to ensure that Harris County got a cut. The grant would have assisted more than 28,000 families across Texas and about 10,000 in Harris County.
Harris County families and neighborhoods had not yet been identified as funding recipients, Menefee said, but the program was widely publicized.
“Folks very much knew that Harris County had been awarded this grant and we were going to, with federal dollars, make a deep investment in lowering people’s bills,” he said. “There were not specific individuals who were expecting they were going to get the money but certainly the community at large expected this money to come.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia attended the press conference this week and detailed the rigorous grant application process for the solar program.
“Generating more electricity is not part of a political agenda, power is not partisan, and fuel for our first responders should not be controversial,” Garcia said. “We need to produce more energy to sustain the growth across Texas, and I hope the courts will see it this way too.”
Hidalgo said the grant wasn’t just going to help Harris County families; it was going to boost infrastructure for natural disasters.
“There’s a saying in emergency management that there are two kinds of generators: the kind that start and fail and the kind that never start,” she said. “We were working based on that premise and developing hubs that would have their own ability to produce solar energy, their own microgrid, so if the grid failed, they could still have power.”
Menefee said he hopes Harris County will get a response from the government within 60 days.
“This is about more than one grant,” Menefee said. “It’s about good government. The federal government made a promise to local communities. We did our part, and now Washington has to hold up its end of the deal.”
Texans have grown accustomed to heatwaves and deadly floods, and, while a hurricane can’t be stopped by a panel of politicians, residents who vote on both sides of the aisle want the government to implement climate change policy solutions, according to a University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey released last week.
More than 86 percent of about 5,000 survey respondents believe in the effects of climate change, but their thoughts on the causes vary along party lines. About 48 percent of Democratic respondents attributed climate change mostly to human activities, compared to 13.3 percent of Republicans, who attributed it mostly to natural environmental changes.
About 3.7 percent of respondents deny that climate change exists, and 57.7 percent identify the oil and gas industry as one of the main culprits.
Republicans have traditionally not listed climate change as a priority and almost 70 percent say an important consideration for them in any climate policy proposal is keeping consumer costs low, according to a Pew Research Center study released last year and cited in the UH Hobby School survey.
About 5,000 people in nine counties were surveyed on climate change. Credit: University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs
So climate change is “a thing,” but what can be done to address it?
Maria Perez Arguelles, lead researcher on the report and a research assistant professor at the Hobby School, said the Texas Legislature considered several measures during its most recent session.
“Lawmakers passed more bills that were aimed at strengthening the power grid or expanding the reliability of energy supply,” she said. “But other bills targeting renewable energy development and those that targeted wind and solar installations, for example, didn’t pass.”
The survey polled residents of nine counties surrounding Houston between August 11 and September 4.
Overall, respondents showed stronger support for policies promoting energy efficiency — such as improving energy use in homes, vehicles, and factories — over more technical solutions like carbon capture. These solutions are seen as more effective and more likely to garner bipartisan support, the report states.
“What these results suggest is that those policies that promote efficiency and visible community benefits — things that people can visualize and see translated into everyday lives — have a higher chance of gaining bipartisan support in the Greater Houston area,” Perez Arguelles said.
Houston and Harris County have climate action plans to address a steady rise in federally declared disasters, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017, severe floods, winter storms, and wildfires.
“These repeated events have underscored the region’s vulnerability and highlighted the urgent need for stronger infrastructure, flood protection, and emergency response systems,” the Hobby School report states.
At a press conference this week on emergency preparedness, County Judge Lina Hidalgo lauded the “first of its kind in the nation” community-focused Climate Justice Plan, adopted earlier this year. The plan’s chief goals are to deploy electric vehicles and charging stations; improve energy efficiency in county buildings; and produce green spaces and native landscaping.
“I’m not going to pretend like there are not challenges right now,” Hidalgo said. “We all know that FEMA has been taking some hits and nobody is sure how they will respond when we need them. There’s a major grant for solar power that we were awarded by the federal government that we were told is not arriving anymore. That’s another challenge, and of course, there are certain things in the budget that just passed that can have an impact on emergency response efforts.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks at a September 30 press conference on emergency preparedness. Credit: April Towery
Within 24 hours of Hidalgo’s press conference, the federal government shut down, adding to the uncertainty facing states and counties that are prone to natural disasters.
Harris County’s Climate Action Plan, adopted in 2023, aims, among other things, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 through reductions from county buildings, fleet and commuting, procurement, and waste management.
“I want to make sure folks know that we have strong partnerships,” Hidalgo said at the press conference as she stood at a podium with meteorologist Jeff Linder, Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Coordinator Mark Sloan, and American Red Cross Regional CEO Shawn Schulze.
“There are many things we can’t control about emergencies and disasters, but one thing we can control is the partnerships. That is what a smooth response depends on,” she said.
As city and county leaders work to address climate change through action plans and policies, they’re also reminding the public of how to stay informed and how to best respond when a disaster hits. Although Harris County hasn’t had an active hurricane season this year, tropical storms are expected through the end of November. Some regions of the county are experiencing drought conditions, Christensen said.
Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen speaks at a September 30 press conference on emergency preparedness. Credit: April Towery
At the September 30 press conference, Christensen urged the public to prepare for disasters on “blue sky days” like the ones Houston has experienced lately.
“Have your chimneys cleaned,” she said. “Make sure that you’ve got a five-foot radius around your fireplace. If you’re burning outside and you’ve got a nice fire pit that you bought at a box store, make sure you have water around it so you can disperse and put the water on it and get the fire out.”
The fire marshal further suggested that families practice evacuation plans for their homes. Several of the speakers at the press conference reminded residents to sign up for Ready Harris emergency alerts.
Houston released its first-ever Climate Action Plan in 2020. The CAP, overseen by the Office of Recovery and Resilience, was part of the Resilient Houston strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and improve urban resilience. It’s cited in the UH report as one of the policy initiatives residents prefer.
The CAP focuses on transportation, energy transition, building optimization, and material management. A two-year update in 2022 highlighted some progress, including a 37 percent drop in emissions since 2005 and 92 percent of municipal facilities powered by renewable energy.
About 5,000 residents were surveyed on climate change by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs. Credit: University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs
Among survey respondents, the most popular policy solution to reduce carbon emissions was to make factories and energy systems more efficient.
“Generally, we observe significant partisan differences in perceptions of carbon reduction strategies,” the report states. “Democrats consistently show higher support for all measures, especially efficiency improvements and cleaner fuels, while Republicans are less supportive of all options, especially carbon capture. We also find that Independents and non-affiliated respondents in the Greater Houston area typically align closer to Democrats.”
A 42-year-old man has been charged with murder after a “ding dong ditch” shooting left an 11-year-old Houston boy dead Saturday.Leon Gonzalo Jr. was booked into jail Tuesday morning, Harris County court records show. His address matches the address where someone fatally opened fire at the 11-year-old, whom a witness described as running away from the house when he was shot, according to police.”Officers were told the male was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” police said. “A witness stated the male was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound.” The shooting did not seem to involve self-defense because the shooting “wasn’t close to the house,” Houston police homicide Sgt. Michael Cass said, according to CNN affiliate KHOU.The boy’s name has not been publicly released.Gonzalo Jr. is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.”Ding dong ditching” is an age-old prank that’s risen in popularity in recent years as a social media challenge. TikTok videos often feature variations where pranksters pound on or kick people’s front doors.In May, an 18-year-old high school senior in Virginia was shot and killed while filming a “ding dong ditch” to post on TikTok, The New York Times reported. The man accused of shooting the teen was charged with second-degree murder.In 2020, three 16-year-olds were killed when a California man rammed his car into their vehicle in retaliation for a “ding dong ditch” prank. The man was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2023.In the Houston case, the boy and his friends were playing a game of “ding dong ditch” at a house down the street from their homes just before 11 p.m. Saturday when a person inside the house came out and shot the boy, Houston police said.A witness said the boy was running from the house on Racine Street after ringing the doorbell when he was shot, police said.The boy was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead on Sunday, police said.This is a developing story and will be updated.CNN’s Karina Tsui, Danya Gainor and David Williams contributed to this report.
A 42-year-old man has been charged with murder after a “ding dong ditch” shooting left an 11-year-old Houston boy dead Saturday.
Leon Gonzalo Jr. was booked into jail Tuesday morning, Harris County court records show. His address matches the address where someone fatally opened fire at the 11-year-old, whom a witness described as running away from the house when he was shot, according to police.
“Officers were told the male was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away,” police said. “A witness stated the male was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound.”
The shooting did not seem to involve self-defense because the shooting “wasn’t close to the house,” Houston police homicide Sgt. Michael Cass said, according to CNN affiliate KHOU.
The boy’s name has not been publicly released.
Gonzalo Jr. is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
“Ding dong ditching” is an age-old prank that’s risen in popularity in recent years as a social media challenge. TikTok videos often feature variations where pranksters pound on or kick people’s front doors.
In May, an 18-year-old high school senior in Virginia was shot and killed while filming a “ding dong ditch” to post on TikTok, The New York Times reported. The man accused of shooting the teen was charged with second-degree murder.
In 2020, three 16-year-olds were killed when a California man rammed his car into their vehicle in retaliation for a “ding dong ditch” prank. The man was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2023.
In the Houston case, the boy and his friends were playing a game of “ding dong ditch” at a house down the street from their homes just before 11 p.m. Saturday when a person inside the house came out and shot the boy, Houston police said.
A witness said the boy was running from the house on Racine Street after ringing the doorbell when he was shot, police said.
The boy was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead on Sunday, police said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Karina Tsui, Danya Gainor and David Williams contributed to this report.
HOUSTON – Two children, both under the age of five, somehow survived a violent rollover crash in which they both were ejected from the vehicle.
Video from moments after the crash has since gone viral, collecting millions of views around the nation as the two toddlers, wearing only diapers, pick themselves up from the hot asphalt.
The video, shared with KPRC 2, started just after all of the vehicles involved came to a stop. You can see a man running towards the children, who appear to be stunned.
Other videos shared with KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding show the children bloodied and are too graphic to share.
“And by sheer miracle, they sustained very minor injuries and are expected to survive,” said Harris County Sheriff’s Ed Gonzalez.
The crash happened around 7 p.m. this past Sunday on the I-10 East Freeway near Freeport Blvd.
According to Sheriff Gonzalez, a driver in the exit lane entered the main travel lanes, slamming into the Jeep the children were riding in along with their father.
“Then the Jeep flipped over,” the sheriff said.
The white Jeep rolled over several times leading to the children to be thrown from the vehicle.
Neither of the children—ages one and four years old—were in car seat or even buckled in.
“I’m still shocked that they’re alive,” Sheriff Gonzalez said. “By state law, you’re supposed to have a car seat of your eight years old or younger. Neither, had a seatbelt on, so it’s very reckless and irresponsible.”
It’s that recklessness that could land the children’s dad charges.
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, no one has been officially charged, but investigators are not ruling that out.
“There could be charges filed,” the sheriff said. “So, we’re not ruling that out. We just want to complete a few loose ends.”
The good news is that both children are expected to make a full recovery.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
RICHMOND, Texas – When a hurricane is eyeing up the Texas Gulf Coast, we all want to know the most up-to-date information every single minute.
Technology has given us the resources to do just that. But at the same time, that same technology could be used to spread misinformation just as fast as real updates.
Social media started a fire of misinformation, allowing anyone to post just about anything. It could be true or it could be false.
Now, with advancements in artificial intelligence, it’s becoming harder to sort through what’s fake and what’s real.
The introduction of Deepfakes just poured jet fuel on that fire.
Defining Deepfakes
Deepfake (n) – an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said
That’s the official definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
To learn a little more, we lean on the experts at the University of Virginia.
“A deepfake is an artificial image or video (a series of images) generated by a special kind of machine learning called “deep” learning (hence the name). There two overviews of how deepfakes work in this article: one for the layperson, and one for the technically-minded,” the university shared online. “Deep learning is similar to any kind of machine learning, where an algorithm is fed examples and learns to produce output that resembles the examples it learned from. Humans learn the same way; a baby might try eating random objects, and it quickly discovers what’s edible and what isn’t.”
You Might Use Deepfake Technology Everyday
That’s right. The technology that fits in the palm of your hand and lives in your pocket is the same type of tech behind deepfakes.
Apps like Face Swap, filters on Instagram and Snapchat and apps that alter your voice or allow you to type text and have your voice say the words are all examples of the machine learning that’s used to create deepfakes.
“They kind of do it now. It’s kind of like a joke,” said Ariana Elias of Stafford.
The difference is the complexity of the machine learning.
A simple app like Face Swap doesn’t use a lot of resources.
Meanwhile, creating a video of someone saying something they never did is a very resource intensive process.
Deepfakes During Dangerous Situations
Deciphering between a deepfake and what’s real can be really difficult. And here’s the real problem: it’s only going to get harder.
During an emergency situation, like a hurricane or other natural disaster, taking the time to analyze a piece of information, for example a statement from a press conference held by the local emergency management office, could mean evacuating before a storm hits or staying put.
“I am actually really, really concerned about that on many levels,” said Roderi Holmes of Stafford.
It’s that exact fear that presents a new challenge for Fort Bend County Emergency Management Coordinator Greg Babst.
He’s no stranger to the danger deepfakes pose to the community. But it wasn’t until a recent training conference that he first hand got to experience a deepfake of himself.
“One of the cyber analysts came in there and they basically took my information,” Babst explains. “During the end of the conference. They were able to put up their presentation and using AI and only an hour of time, that person was able to grab my face off of social media, was able to grab my voice over from press conferences and whatnot that I’ve done in the past on social media from our sites, and then put that capability with AI and putting me in an emergency operation center and telling people to evacuate.”
It’s that very experience that opened a whole new vulnerability to getting life-saving information out fast, but also accurately.
Gage Goulding: “Was that experience eye opening for you?”
Greg Babst: “Yes. I honestly knew it was out there. I didn’t know that it could be that almost that real.”
Don’t Be Afraid, Be Aware
During a time of emergency, a deepfake video of someone like Babst, a mayor, governor or county judge could put potentially life-threatening or deadly misinformation out into the world.
You shouldn’t be scared of the world, but instead don’t take everything at face value until you investigate the source and ensure it’s coming from a trusted, vetted place.
“Know your sources, vet those sources and then continue to follow those exact sources,” Babst said.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
HOUSTON – The Harris County Public Health has identified a spike in cases of West Nile virus after several people were hospitalized after being infected following Hurricane Beryl’s impact.
The hurricane not only brought damaging winds and heaving rain but with the combination of Houston humidity and hot temperatures — made it a breeding ground for mosquitos to thrive.
Earlier in July, we reported an increase in mosquito population due to the storm’s aftermath.
HCPH officials held a virtual meeting Friday to urge residents to take precautions to protect themselves.
According to the dashboard, at least seven Harris County residents have been infected by the West Nile virus and two travel-related dengue cases have been reported.
HCPH also confirmed 520 positive mosquito samples across 168 of its 268 operational areas.
“We are seeing more West Nile virus-positive mosquito pools this year than in previous years,” said Maximea “Max” Vigilant, DrPH, MPH, Director of the Mosquito and Vector Control Division. “This is partly due to our implementation of a more sensitive testing method, qPCR, which allows us to test a larger number of mosquitoes, and hence detect any virus circulating in the populations.”
The Texas Department of State Health Services recommends practicing the “Four Ds” as precautionary measures:
Use insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
Dress in long sleeves and long pants when you are outside.
Stay indoors at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active.
Drain standing water where mosquitoes breed. Common breeding sites include old tires, flowerpots and clogged rain gutters.
HOUSTON – When disaster strikes, the first place many people go is to a church.
In Sunnyside, that’s exactly what hundreds did in the days after Hurricane Beryl left well over two million Houstonians in the dark amid triple-digit heat index temperatures.
At the First Missionary Baptist Church in Sunnyside, they were welcomed with open arms. However, it comes at a cost for the congregation that now has to face a forecasted electric bill nearly 10 times their typical bill.
For seven days following Beryl stranding many in Houston’s heat, the church along Briscoe Street in Sunnyside became an outlet to help the local community survive—literally.
They offered a space to cool down, outlets to charge your phone and keep medical equipment running and a hot meal.
“God has never left me behind and I believe that taking care of his people, I think God is smiling on what we did,” said Pastor Henry Price II.
Pastor Henry Price II of the First Missionary Baptist Church in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Houston, Texas on July 18, 2024. (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)
Over the course of the seven days, the church was open to residents 24/7. Hundreds of people took advantage of the lifeline tucked away in their neighborhood.
“The Lord left the lights on here and everybody else lights was off,” Pastor Price said. “It was my duty to invite everybody into the Lord’s house.”
It’s almost a miracle that the church never lost power while it was surrounded by power outages. The pastor taking that as a sign to open up and allow his community inside, whether it be for a few minutes or a few days.
“People were saying you’re going to sleep in a sanctuary,” Price said. “Well, that’s what it is, a sanctuary. And so, we had people sleeping all on the pews, wherever they could fit in. During the storm that was doing, portable hemodialysis. I had people here. That was plugged up to heart monitors and all of that stuff.”
As you could imagine, keeping the lights on, the AC cranked cold and offering everyone a space to charge up ran up their electricity bill quickly.
“Our monthly utility bill is $850,” the pastor told KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding. “We’re looking for the bill to be up around $8,000 or $9,000 for this month.”
That’s roughly ten times their normal amount. It’s a big check that the pastor will have to find some way to write.
“I’m sure that the Lord will make a way,” Price said.
This isn’t just a one-off thing for this church helping the community.
Every single month, they hand out hundreds of boxes of food from the food bank to help people that need it most. Giving them A/C and power is just another example of how they help the Sunnyside community.
“When you’re doing it and the people in need, that’s all that matters,” Price said.
That big power bill still lingers over his head though.
After making some calls, it turns out FEMA does help churches that help others during disasters.
It’s help like this that will make it easier for a small church like First Missionary Baptist Church to weather a storm like Beryl.
But Pastor Price has faith no matter what they’ll make it through to sunnier days.
“We’ve been in this situation before. You know, and if the Lord did it before, he’ll do it again. I really believe that,” he said.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
A man has been arrested after barricaded himself in a Houston-area apartment unit with a hostage after shooting at police.
The scene was first reported by Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez at around 8:30 p.m. Friday night. Authorities Harris County Sheriff’s Office responded to a disturbance call on the 500 block of Normandy Street in Greens Bayou.
When authorities arrived, they were met with gunshots, before the shooter ran into an apartment unit.
An hour after the initial confrontation, Sheriff Gonzalez reported that the man has an adult female hostage in the unit with him. The Harris County SWAT team was on the scene.
20 minutes after that report, it was announced that the man was taken into custody without further incident. The female hostage was not injured during the arrest.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
HOUSTON – Hurricane Beryl’s power outages in the Houston area are historic for CenterPoint, according to Jason Ryan, Executive Vice President of Regulatory Services and Government Affairs. And fueled by “unprecedented extreme weather” including not just Beryl, but freezes, drought and rain that have all contributed to conditions that caused debris — entire trees and limbs — to bring down or damage power lines.
In a live and exclusive interview with KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding this afternoon, Ryan said the amount of help they brought in was unprecedented too. on Wednesday, 11-thousand workers were out on 16-hour shifts, restoring power and making repairs.
Ryan — who said he also has no power — expects the company to reach its goal of restoring power for one million customers by the end of Wednesday, as promised.
What’s up with the outage tracker?
“So the outage tracker map that we put up, last night is still a temporary fix that shows kind of in groups where you are in our restoration process. We will update that map three times a day at noon, at 4 p.m., 8 p.m.,” Ryan said.
Starting Thursday, CenterPoint will also give customers estimated restoration times. That should help us all get a better handle on how long it will take to get power restored to most folks.
The company’s outage tracker crashed with more than 900,000 outages during May’s derecho and the company told everyone a new, better tool was coming.
“But we are bringing a completely new, outage tracker map that will be able to withstand the significant traffic that we saw during the derecho. It was that significant traffic on the map that brought that site down. We knew if we put that same site back up, it would not meet customer expectations this go-around either. So that’s why we came up with the outage map that we put out yesterday. We will continue to refine the information on that map and provide estimated restoration times starting tomorrow,” Ryan told Goulding. The new outage tracker was supposed to be ready by the end of this month, but Ryan didn’t have a date for the rollout.
More than a million customers were still without power in the Houston metro area Wednesday night after Hurricane Beryl’s destructive wind.
Transcript from the full interview:
Gage Goulding: Thank you so much. I know you’re incredibly busy. You and your entire team. On behalf of Houston, we thank you for all the hard work the men and women here at CenterPoint are doing. First and foremost, how are you and your team? Is everybody okay and safe?
Jason Ryan: We are. And you know, I want to start out by thanking our customers for their patience. We’re about 48 hours since the hurricane left the greater Houston area. And our team has performed well. We’ve had no serious injuries or fatalities. Very proud of that. Especially with the more than 10,000 additional resources that we brought in from other utilities. They’re not used to being in Houston. they’re working in dangerous conditions. And so, the men and women in the field are safe and super proud of them.
Gage Goulding: And that’s a staggering number. So let’s start there. I met, I think, of a crew as far away from Wheeling, West Virginia that I, whenever I was out and I worked in Wheeling, West Virginia, many moons ago. And I was just so shocked that they were here so quickly. And I believe the number was 12,000 people out working to restore power. Have you ever had an activation of that size before, or is this kind of historic proportions, if you will.
Jason Ryan: So we’ve never had this many customers out from a storm before. 2.26 million customers out at the height of the storm. so as a result of that unprecedented outage number, we needed to have an unprecedented response. So we brought those crews in as soon as it was safe to bring them into Houston, and got them to work. There are more than 11,000 people working on the system today.
Gage Goulding: 11,000?
Jason Ryan: Yes.
Gage Goulding: So let’s talk about that. That was an incredible goal of a million people restored by the end of today. Are you confident? Are we going to reach that?
Jason Ryan: Yes, we’re on track to reach that. We, restored 918,000 customers as of 1:00 today. So we’re on track to hit that million customer mark. Our crews are working 16 hour days. And we’re going to work non-stop around the clock until we get all of our customers back on. But we are confident in hitting, our goal for today.
Gage Goulding: So we put an article up earlier asking our KPRC 2 Insiders to, you know, give us some questions that they want to ask you if they can be in the hot seat with you right now. One of the questions was, and we saw some crews, you know, just in a parking lot. “There’s crews down the street for me, there in a parking lot. They’re not working. What are they doing?” Is that a shift waiting to go on? You know, what are these? How does that all work?
Jason Ryan: It could be a number of things. It could be them documenting the work that they’ve done so far. It could be them getting additional directions for the work they need to do. You know, some of these crews, they get on site. Based on the assessment that they’ve done, that we’ve done, they may need additional information before they can get started working. Again. 10,000 plus of these personnel are not CenterPoint energy employees. They need to understand the standards to which we have to build our system. They need to understand how high the clearances for the lines need to be to comply with local ordinances. So they may be getting that additional information before they start their work. Or they may be, recording the work that’s been done to date so that we can get those outage numbers constantly updated. You know, so there are a number of reasons why they may be, idle for a minute. They may also be on break. We know our customers are hot. The men and women doing this work are hot. So they are taking breaks. They are rehydrating. So that may be another reason why you see, the crews not actively working, but they are out there working.
Gage Goulding: What are some of the biggest problems that you’re dealing with right now? Is it you know, what we saw during the May storm? Transmission lines down. Is it vegetation? What are some of the biggest obstacles out there?
Jason Ryan: Yeah. So unlike that storm, unlike, Harvey before it, this is not a storm that caused material problems on our transmission system. The transmission system of the big poles and wires that move power across the state. We didn’t have material damage to the transmission system. We didn’t have material damage to our substations. Our substations didn’t flood, like they did during Harvey. This is a distribution system challenge. It is the poles and the wires that go from the substations to your home or business. That’s the distribution system. And it’s largely debris on that distribution system. It could be entire trees, that have fallen over. It could be limbs that have fallen over. You know, we’ve gone through significant freezes, significant drought, significant rain, unprecedented, extreme weather conditions on our large trees here in Houston. You’ve got large canopies without mature root systems and so that’s why you see entire trees coming over onto our infrastructure. So it is a vegetation tree problem on the distribution system. Our personnel as of the end of the day yesterday had walked 4,500 miles of distribution lines to assess the problem so they can assign the right crews to do the right work. You know before we can send the right crews out, we need to know do we need to send a construction crew out a large construction crew to rebuild the poles and the wires? Do we need to send a vegetation crew out to remove trees, or do we need to send a smaller crew out, to rework smaller parts of the distribution system? Knowing which crews to send out is the reason we do that assessment work in the first 48 hours.
Gage Goulding: And we we talked about, brought it up to the ratio back in May. That put quite a strain, actually, believe it or not, June 7 is when we did that interview. Fast forward a month to the day is whenever Beryl was about to make landfall. So just very ironic. And, you know, we talked back then about how during Ike, CenterPoint had 12 days to get, you know, ready to brace for it in duration. You had no time.
Jason Ryan: 15 minutes. Yeah.
Gage Goulding: How much time did you, you know, realize that? This is going to this is going to impact us and our customers.
Jason Ryan: eah. So we started watching this storm nine days out. And as everybody knows, at that time, it wasn’t looking like it was coming to Texas. Obviously, as the days got closer to Monday, that started to change. It really started to change over the weekend. When it was more clear that it was going to hit the Houston area. So we, lined up 3,000 mutual aid resources to come into Houston before the weekend. As it became more clear that this storm was going to have a direct hit on us, that’s when we increased the number of people that we asked for. And that’s where the, greater than 10,000 crews came in to play when it was clear that the storm was going to hit right here.
Gage Goulding: And one of the things that we talked about in depth that there’s already changed from the derecho to now was the outage tracker. And I, I want to quote our interview that we had. You said,”We didn’t meet customer expectations when that wasn’t available, when they needed it most. It’s not acceptable to us or our customers.” And this is what really stuck with me, “We know that we will not have that grace from our customers and communities to miss it again.”
Jason Ryan: That’s right.
Gage Goulding: The new outage tracker. You promised a new outage tracker in maybe a little bit quicker than you would have wanted to try it out. Are you happy with the new outage tracker? And is this the solution to make sure people are informed? [16:07:42][37.4]
Jason Ryan: So the outage tracker map that we put up, last night is still a temporary fix that shows kind of in groups where you are in our restoration process. We will update that map three times a day at noon, at 4 p.m., 8 p.m. We will update it three times a day. Starting tomorrow, we will have estimated restoration times. That’s more granular than what you see there today. That is still a temporary fix.
We are starting completely from scratch with a new outage map, that we unfortunately were aiming for the end of this month in advance of the typical hurricane, peak of hurricane season, right? August. September.
But we are bringing a completely new, outage tracker map that will be able to withstand the significant traffic that we saw during the derecho. It was that significant traffic on the map that brought that site down. We knew if we put that same site back up, it would not meet customer expectations this go-around either. So that’s why we came up with the outage map that we put out yesterday. We will continue to refine the information on that map and provide estimated restoration times starting tomorrow.
Gage Goulding: Another thing we talked about back in June, and it seems like such a long time ago, but in the broader, you know, business, there really isn’t. We talked about the supplies because that’s our concern back then was how does how did that the Rachel affect hurricane season where you have all your stock built up. And I remember you telling me that, you know, you said I can’t lie to you. We’re trying to get everything put back together. Were you able to replenish your stock in time, or are you facing any supply chain issues or we need more poles and we can’t get them?
Jason Ryan: We don’t have any material challenges with our supply right now. We did replenish that over the course of the last month plus, since the derecho. So we are not having supply issues, causing delays and restoration.
Gage Goulding: If I have no power, I see my neighbors still have it. I think there’s a lot of people. The number one question I get is, you know, when is you know, 77098 coming on when it was like a zip code or something like that, right. What can you tell people? Yeah. After. And I get it, I don’t have power either at home right now. It was a very uncomfortable sleep last night.
Jason Ryan: Same.
Gage Goulding: So you don’t have power, right?
Jason Ryan: Right. That’s right.
Gage Goulding: So even even one of the top dog doesn’t have that happen. So you’re you’re with us, you know, and I’m sure you’re wondering when is that beautiful white truck going to come down and fix my stuff. What can you offer to the CenterPoint customers and people of Houston to just help us get through this? You know what we dig For any information, what would you offer?
Jason Ryan: So, we know that customers want to understand the process. So yesterday we put out a visual of the process. It’s a five step process, right? It starts with our preparation post-storm. It starts with assessment. That’s step two of the process. Many of our customers are still in step two, but a number of our customers have gone on to step three, which is restoration at the circuit level. Think of, circuits being the main highways of the distribution system that bring on entire areas of town. And so we start working on circuits first with the theory of bring on the most people the quickest and you’ll get to the one-days, two-days later. We know that’s still frustrating for those, 1 or 2 people that are out in that neighborhood, but our priority is to get the most people on the soonest. So as soon as we finish those circuit level outages, that’s where you might see certain neighborhoods on, but other neighborhoods not on. Again, we work down the priority list. So, step threeare those circuit level, outages. Step four starts getting into the neighborhood specific outage and then step five is the premise-specific outage.
During Hurricane Ike, for example, I was the last house in the neighborhood to get on because the line to my house was on the ground. Nobody else had the line on the ground. And so I was one of the last ones because that’s the process that we use.
Gage Goulding: And everybody wants to have the priority status. Even you don’t have the priority status. Is there a priority leveling? Is there certain neighborhoods get power first because it’s, you know, status or anything like that or is it based off of where the hospitals are?
Jason Ryan: We do give priority to a number of public safety-related premises. So think water treatment facilities, 911 centers. So we do prioritize getting those facilities back up while at the same time we’re working on the circuit level outages for the homes and businesses. So we do prioritize those public safety necessary premises to get back up before you get into boil water notices unnecessarily, things like that. So we don’t want the problems to get bigger just because, you might be the one-days, two-days, but you’re an incredibly important public safety premise So we do prioritize those. We are working through those priority lists as we speak.
Gage Goulding: And we only have a couple of minutes. I want to get across two more things here. The last time we talked in June, you said Ike cost about $700 million in the derecho in May was around roughly at the time about $100 million. Is there any forecast on what this has already cost or what it will cost?
Jason Ryan: Not yet. We’re still in the first 48 hours of the event, but we have brought in many more crews than we brought in, for the derecho, so this will be, you know, a multitude or, you know, twice as much, probably as the derecho event, but we’re still working on that.
Gage Goulding: And, we talked about this in depth in June, and we reported on it and I think this is a really interesting thing, the Resilience Plan, a huge monumental investment by CenterPoint to make the grid stronger. A lot of the questions people had were actually answered by that like, “Why isn’t CenterPoint investing in making the grid and everything stronger?” That’s actually in the process of happening. Can you explain how and what the Resilience Plan is and how that’s going to help? If we knock on wood and hopefully don’t get one of these again. But if it [the plan] happens, how it will help prevent having these monumental numbers?
Jason Ryan: So our Resilience Plan that we filed with the state back in March has 28 different programs associated with it. Some of them are on hard infrastructure, like distribution lines, where we’re replacing wooden poles with harder composite poles. Some of them are cybersecurity related. Some of them are physical security related. But let me stick with the pole example. And we’ve seen during the duration that we’ve seen during this storm where we’ve already started putting those composite poles up. In these severe weather events, those composite poles remain standing, and right next to them, wooden poles that we haven’t yet replaced are on the ground, snapped in half. So we know from these early tests that the Resilience Plan will yield better results once it’s fully implemented.
Gage Goulding: Well, Jason, thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time. We appreciate all the work that CenterPoint is doing and you know, look, a lot of people still in Houston without power it’s going to take time, but 12,000 people, that’s a lot of people that are out there working right now. Anything else you want to add in there that we didn’t get to?
Jason Ryan: You know, only again recognizing that our customers are feeling the brunt of this. And understanding that in addition to the power being out, many of them have suffered significant, loss to property, right? Trees on their houses, trees on their cars. Trees on their businesses. And so our hearts go out to our customers. We thank them for their patience as we continue to do restoration. But we do know, that there’s a lot of suffering out in the community and we’re we will not stop working until the work is done.
As Beryl continued its path toward Texas landfill, Mayor John Whitmire and other Houston area officials urged local residents to stay home as of 10 p.m. Sunday to stay safe and not add extra demands on first responders poised to go into action as the storm’s effects are felt here.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, Beryl was expected to make landfall as a hurricane. There is a potential for power outages lasting two days.
“To all Houstonians, we have to take Beryl very, very seriously,” Whitmire said as he began his press conference. “Tomorrow, city employees are to work from home. Municipal courts, other services will be suspended and determined late tomorrow evening about Tuesday.”
Whitmire said surrounding governments including Montgomery and Fort Bend counties have offered their assistance. Local school district have closed for Monday and in Houston ISD classes are canceled for Monday and Tuesday.
“This storm has been unpredictable from day one. The conditions that you go to sleep tonight will not be the same as you you will wake up in the mornings,” Whitmire said. He said the winds and rain will start getting very intense around midnight. “We will have street flooding.”
After the first outer band went through, Buffalo Bayou along Memorial was already filling up.
Photo by Jack Gorman
Metro service was scheduled to stop around 10 p.m. Sunday and resume around 8 a.m. Monday, conditions permitting. Most city employees were told to work from home on Monday.
Acting Police Chief Larry Satterwhite said “The simple fact is we’re more prepared now than we ever have been for a storm like this. I think we have increased now to about 20 highway rescue trucks. And we have prepositioned around the city. We have hundreds of personnel who have been trained in swift water so we’re much more prepared.
“How can the public help? Let me echo the mayor and the commissioner — to stay off the road. I will go a step further and ask the bars and nightclubs if you can help us out, if you close earlier you’ll get your employees home and safe.”
Extra attention will be focused on the western portion of the city which is expected to see the worst of the storm as it moves through. Officials said they hoped Beryl would move through the area quickly.
Precinct 2 County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said special attention will be paid to conditions along the San Jacinto River as well. “Wind will be our greatest threat and 10 o’clock tonight should be your no-go to be on the road.”
Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey said they have 16 crews already in position in flood prone areas in his district. Harris County Judge Lina Hildalgo was not present and it was reported she would have her own press conference later Sunday.
Fire Chief Samuel Peña said “We have additional water strike teams. We have additional high water vehicles.” He said they’re also teamed up with the city’s Public Works Department to ensure that they are clearing debris from the streets. He also warned residents with generators to be careful that they don’t fall victim to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Whitmire said he has been in constant contact with Acting Governor Dan Patrick and that the city has been coordinating efforts with the Department of Transportation, the State Emergency Center and the Department of Public Safety.
HOUSTON – A Lake Livingston Dam is now being watched for a “potential failure.”
The Trinity River Authority, which oversees Lake Livingston, the dam and the Trinity River, shared the declaration on Friday.
Crews discovered that the spillway has been “adversely impacted by the recent heavy rainfall and flooding,” according to a release shared with KPRC 2.
The Trinity River Authority has not provided additional information into the damage to the spillway or what prompted the declaration.
“Although there is no immediate danger of either failure or breach of the dam, the potential does exist however remote it might be,” the statement reads.
Although Lake Livingston are more than 80 miles away from downtown Houston, millions of people could be left dry if something were to happen to the lake’s supply of water.
The City of Houston relies on water that flows from Lake Livingston, over the dam and into the Trinity River for drinking water.
More than three million people use the water from the river every single day, according to the Houston Department of Public Works.
“The City of Houston draws raw water for the East and Southeast Water Purification plants from the Trinity River pump station, 35 miles downstream of the Lake Livingston dam,” a Public Works spokesperson told KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding on Saturday. “These two water purification plants serve more 3 million customers in the Greater Houston Metropolitan area with water.”
This isn’t a few drops of water being pulled from the Trinity River.
Every day roughly 806 million gallons of water is pumped from the Trinity River and used for drinking water, according to a 2020 presentation to Houston City Council.
That equates to roughly 70% of the city’s daily water supply.
Simply put—it’s a lot of water.
It’s so much that if for some reason the spillway were to fail or even be closed entirely for repair, we could be in big trouble.
The City of Houston Public Works provides water not only for city residents but people across Harris County as well as three surrounding counties.
“If the Lake Livingston Dam operations were compromised and storage was not available, the pump station would continue to draw water from the Trinity River,” a Public Works spokesperson said. “There may be potential disruption of water pressure and supply during times of peak water demand and low flow of the Trinty River. Additional water conservation measures may need to take place at that time.”
The City of Houston does get water from other sources to keep up with the demand of 172 billion gallons of water a year, according to statistics provided by Public Works. That’s enough to fill the Astrodome four times, every single day.
However, there’s one problem. They wouldn’t have enough water to make up for the potential loss if the Trinity River is not able to provide any water.
“The alternative water source from Lake Houston via the West Canal is not a sufficient supply of water to keep the entire service area supported the Trinty River free of potential disruptions,” a Public Works spokesperson said.
While the Lake Livingston Dam is under a “potential failure watch,” the Trinity River Authority says the risk for failure is “remote.”
KPRC 2 has asked for additional information regarding the damage to the spillway. The Trinity River Authority has not responded to our request.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
Gage Goulding, Oscar Chavez, Marcus Gutierrez, Katie Brown
HOUSTON – It’s no secret that summers in Houston can get hot. Really hot.
Over the last week, we’ve seen temperatures climb into the 90s with feels like temps reaching well into the triple digits.
On Sunday, feels like temperatures, or the heat index, reached 114°F in some parts of the Houston area.
Heat indices as of 1pm are mostly between 103-110°F, with a couple places rising a few degrees above that. 🥵
The next few hours will be the hottest part of the day, so the heat indices may rise a couple of more degrees. The Heat Advisory is in effect through 7pm.#HOUwx#TXwxpic.twitter.com/Q2UVPSaFv5
With no end in sight, it’s more important now than ever to check on your neighbors and those who need it most.
Alongside Photojournalist Michael Lemons, KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding checked in with the most vulnerable in our community, offering ice cold drinking water to keep people without a home to go to cool and hydrated.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
“This is going to exceed Memorial Day, which we set the history record for United Airlines here in Houston,” said Peggy Slay, a customer service manager at United Airlines. “We expect to handle about 50,000 people a day.”
The travel surge comes on the heels of an already record-breaking Spring Break and Memorial Day travel season, according to the Houston Airport Systems.
In May, 2,816,854 people boarded nonstop or connecting flights at either Bush or Hobby airport, breaking the last record set in July 2018 with 2,794,798 passengers.
To handle the surge in passengers this summer, particularly around those big holidays, airports and airlines are urging customers to show up three hours before a domestic flight.
“Anticipate being here three hours before your flight time, because you never know what the TSA line is going to be,” Slay said.
At Bush Airport, it’s all hands on deck for United Airlines.
The United Airlines Operation Center inside George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on June 28, 2024. (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)
Inside of Bush Airport, the United Airlines Operations Center is constantly watching the weather, monitoring flights and making adjustments to ensure the smoothest operation they can, while maximizing the efficiency for their airplanes.
Meanwhile, out on the ramp crews are battling the sweltering summer heat to load and unload luggage from airplanes, bring in fresh water, pump out the bathrooms and keep the airplanes full of fuel.
All of this is done while crews inside prep each plane for the next group of passengers.
United Airlines employees load luggage into the belly of an airplane at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on June 28, 2024. (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)
Speaking of passengers, United Airlines is making room for even more people to fly on their planes, without adding any flights or routes to their already incredibly packed schedule.
This is called “upgauging.” In simple terms, United is opting to fly bigger planes with more seats this summer to handle the surge in customers.
“We increase the passenger numbers by putting larger aircraft on routes that demand additional seats to get people there, so we can accommodate as many people as we can,” Slay said. “Same number of aircraft, but more seats get a lot more people out of here.”
United Airlines explains why airplane size helps drive up passenger records:
United Airlines is the largest airline in Houston, currently flying 490 daily flights out of Bush Airport, including 56 international destinations (including Latin America, Canada, Europe and Asia), averaging about 55,000 customers served a day.
As part of the United Next growth plan, an enterprise-wide investment in fleet, network, airports and customer experience, over the next decade United intends to introduce more than 800 narrow and wide-body aircraft to its fleet and expand its global network to reach new points on the map. With that growth plan underway, United is utilizing larger gauge aircrafts for domestic and international routes. United is phasing out its 50 seat aircrafts and utilizing 75 seat aircrafts. This transition allows for the use of more mainline aircraft and ultimately offer 12% more seats per departure compared to last year.
United Airlines expects this Independence Day weekend to be its busiest on record with more than 5 million passengers forecasted to fly United – airline wide – between June 28 and July 8, up more than 7% compared to last year.
Houston isn’t the only city seeing record passenger numbers.
According to data from the TSA, the top five busiest days ever have all been in 2024.
JUST IN: Friday, June 28th, was the 4th busiest day ever for TSA – our officers screened 2.93M individuals at airports nationwide. Please arrive at the airport early with plenty of time to get through security. Have travel questions? Ask the experts: @AskTSA. pic.twitter.com/uv0pmVN9Ek
Nine of the top ten busiest days ever recorded are now post-pandemic travel days, a sure sign that travelers are ready to set into the sky once again.
“They’re ready and it’s time,” said Ashley Kelsey, who’s flying home to North Carolina. “We’re good. Let’s start traveling.”
In order to get to your destination, both United Airlines and the Houston Airports System is encouraging all travelers to arrive at least three hours before their flights.
“We don’t want you missing the cruises. We don’t want you missing the dinner dates, any of that,” Slay said.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
HOUSTON – During what’s proving to be the hottest week of summer so far in Houston, an entire apartment building is left without air conditioning.
An accident early Saturday morning knocked down the power lines that run to The Ridley Apartments along Winsome Lane in the Galleria area. The white box truck also took out a utility pole and the apartment’s gas main.
As a result, residents in the 133-unit apartment building are left without air conditioning during Houston’s hottest week so far this summer.
“Let’s see. What is it now? It’s at 84,” said Adrian Johnson. “So, it’s 84 in here currently.”
That’s not even the hottest reading we saw.
Gage Goulding: “Almost 88 degrees inside. What do you keep the temperature on?”
Bryan Conner: “The temperature stays roughly at about 73 to 75 degrees in here.”
The entire apartment building has been baking in the South Texas sun since around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Residents say there’s been little to no progress on restoring power.
“What you’re looking at right now has been identical since Saturday,” said Conner.
Their apartment complex fronted the bill for some hotel rooms for residents while moving others into vacant units. However, they’ve been quiet in terms of updates.
“Sunday, she told us that it would be done by Wednesday,” Johnson said.
“I get it’s a process. But tell us where you are in the process,” added Conner.
The apartment management company, Emerge Living, said in a statement they’re waiting on the utility company to do some work before they can get started.
Statement From Emerge Living President Cynthia McMillion:
“You are correct, on Saturday, a box truck had a crash at the property. Unfortunately, the incident destroyed the equipment supplying power and the gas to one of the buildings at the property affecting our residents.
We have been actively working to resolve this issue, as well as taking care of our residents. We have provided temporary units at the property and paid for residents to stay in hotel rooms along with other accommodations.
Regarding the repair, the crash involved a lot of equipment, including equipment managed by CenterPoint as well as equipment on our property. We have been in daily communication with both CenterPoint and our own electrical contractor who are working hard to resolve the issue. The issue has been out of our hands, necessitating repairs to the city lines. CenterPoint is expected to come complete a repair to their lines in the next 24 hours, at which point our own electrical contractor can complete the remainder of the required work. We know that this has been a very frustrating situation for all involved. We are working diligently to get power restored and everyone situated back in their homes.”
Meanwhile, CenterPoint Energy says the issue lies in the hands of the private property.
According to a CenterPoint spokesperson, the apartment complex needs to repair their power pole and underground infrastructure before they can reconnect the power.
CenterPoint Energy Statement
“CenterPoint Energy crews have confirmed the outage at The Ridley Apartments is due to damage to customer-owned equipment from a vehicular collision. CenterPoint crews have removed a wire and pole damaged in the accident, per the company’s safety protocols, but are unable to safely re-energize the complex until the customer-owned equipment has been repaired or replaced.”
The City of Houston says this isn’t a matter they would get involved in. However, they do have cooling centers open for any residents that are looking to escape the heat.
In the meantime, residents are stuck in the middle just waiting for the power to be turned back on.
There’s no estimate as to when that could happen.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
HOUSTON – A Texas-based company is accused of stealing millions of dollars from intended parents meant for surrogates and more alleged victims are coming forward claiming to be caught in the middle of the scheme.
Surrogacy Escrow Account Management, LLC (SEAM) and owner Dominique Side are facing mounting allegations of theft as lawyers connected to a civil lawsuit told Bryce Newberry, a reporter at the NBC affiliate in Houston, that additional victims have reached out from Egypt, China, and France.
“When people come to surrogacy, it’s not a choice. It’s not like, ‘Oh, this is my first choice. I want to do this.’ It’s like, ‘I don’t really have another option’,” said Arielle Mitton, an intended parent from Bellingham, Washington.
She is the fourth alleged victim to share her story publicly with the NBC affiliate in Houston, but the lawsuit claims hundreds of families have been impacted.
Mitton is experiencing secondary infertility, which is why she and her husband took the surrogacy route for their fourth child, expected in December.
“I think this will complete our family,” Mitton said.
But she is part of a growing list of intended parents who say SEAM, which came recommended, stole money in their escrow accounts that should be paying their surrogates.
Mitton’s surrogate in Indiana hasn’t been paid since early May and at last check, her escrow account with SEAM had more than $38,000 in it.
She hasn’t been able to access SEAM’s online portal to get an updated number.
According to a lawsuit filed in Harris County, SEAM and Side defrauded clients by luring them into a fiduciary relationship earlier this month erasing social media accounts and deleting business websites.
An estimated $10 million in escrow funds have vanished, the lawsuit alleges, and have possibly been misappropriated by SEAM and Side for years to fund “other business ventures and (a) lavish lifestyle.”
On Wednesday, Bryce Newberry knocked at the Brazoria County address where Side was served the lawsuit Tuesday evening, but no one answered the door.
An automated response from Side’s email on Wednesday claimed she’s the subject of an “active investigation by federal authorities” and at the advice of counsel, “not permitted to respond to any inquiries.”
“It feels premeditated to me,” Mitton said. “How can someone have millions of dollars disappear without some sort of plan?”
Mitton has picked up extra hours at work and said she’s working on a plan to pay her surrogate, which included the creation of a GoFundMe entitled Donate to Aid for Surrogacy Journey After Escrow Fraud.
She’s also part of a Facebook Group entitled SEAM Breach, which had nearly 800 members Wednesday evening, all of whom have been somehow impacted.
“People are just desperate at this point,” Mitton said. “She just needs to do what’s right.”
SEAM borrowed money earlier this year using the value of the escrow fund, which is money that belongs to the intended parents, as collateral. Records show that lender has filed a lawsuit for defaulting on loan payments.
The FBI is seeking potential victims of SEAM and any information at this website, which was created Wednesday.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
KATY, Texas – Just as the sun was rising in the sky Saturday morning, a baby was born. Before lunch, a man dumped the baby on a walking trail near a bayou in Harris County.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says the baby was found wrapped in a towel around 9 a.m. at the end of a cul-de-sac on Casa Martin Drive.
According to detectives, the baby still had the umbilical cord attached.
“The baby was a newborn,” said Sgt. Juan Garcia with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. “Still had fresh placenta on the baby. So, it was freshly born this morning.”
Security camera video captured a man abandoning the baby on a bridge that connects homes off Casa Martin Drive to the walking trail along a bayou.
“That’s gross negligence,” said Daniel Moran. “The baby could die within an hour or two. It’s incomprehensible really.”
Thankfully, a family walking the trail was headed home and spotted the baby within a few minutes of her being placed on the ground.
“We were coming back from our walk this morning, heading home because it was hot,” said Daniela Fedele, who spotted the towel on the bridge. “When I went ahead and looked closer, that’s when I noticed a little baby would like her two feet moving. I think it was like, am I seeing this, right? Like, are my eyes really seeing a baby here?”
Her husband scooped up the baby while Daniela called 911.
“I hold it. The baby opens their eyes to me, looked at me,” Luis Marin told KPRC2′s Gage Goulding. “We make eye contact. And I’m like, how can somebody just do this?”
“It had the umbilical cord. So, it’s like so many questions go through your mind,” added Fedele.
Paramedics rushed the baby to the hospital.
The infant is already doing much better, thanks in part to this family who was chosen to be in the right place to save her life.
“We were just there by chance. I guess by God,” Fedele said. “God put us there, I guess.
Detectives now need your help tracking down the man who left this child here.
Update: we need your help! We are seeking info about a young Hispanic or White male, slim, fair complexion with black hair, that was holding the infant wrapped in a towel. He was wearing a black shirt, possibly gray pants. The male was on foot on the Plantation 1/2 https://t.co/5gqP4OwLbt
