'Breaks your spirit': Houstonians exhausted by frequent disasters
At 92 years old, Gladys Goffney is hardly fazed by the latest storm to rock Houston. As she raked up the remnants of Hurricane Beryl in her front yard Wednesday, she recounted the many disasters she has endured over the decades.
HOUSTON (Nexstar) -- At 92 years old, Gladys Goffney is hardly fazed by the latest storm to rock Houston. As she raked up the remnants of Hurricane Beryl in her front yard Wednesday, she recounted the many disasters she has endured over the decades.
Carla, way back in 1961. Katrina in '05, then Rita, Ike, Harvey, Alberto, Beryl. The names of hurricanes become markers of time for anyone who has lived in Houston long enough.
"You never recover from these storms," she said while surveying her leaky garage roof. Her massive backyard tree was blown onto it the day before. "There's just no way to recover because they come so frequently."
Goffney said she has lost three or four cars and a couple of roofs to various storms. This one, though, was especially insulting -- it came just two months after the last major storm, and she had just finished cleaning that one up.
"It just puts you back to where you were, you know. You thought you were cleaned up," she said surveying the limbs littering her yard. "It kind of breaks your spirit."
After Beryl packed a sudden and unexpected punch, millions of Houstonians shared her exhaustion. More than two million lost power, and at least seven died -- some, drowning in flooded streets or crushing under the same kind of trees that fell on Goffney's home. The city's largest electric company, Centerpoint, has promised to restore power to a million people by Wednesday -- about half of the outages. The heat index in Houston on Tuesday reached 105.
In downtown Houston, trees blocked roads and many stoplights didn't work. Allen Parkway, a major road leading from downtown, is submerged at its underpasses by 10 feet of brown water. A rapid demand for air-conditioned hotel rooms blocked up roads from overflowing valet lots. And those are the fortunate residents -- the rest may resort to public cooling centers.
It's a frequently frustrating fact of life in the nation's fourth-largest city, and it has its people wondering - how long can we put up with this?
"It's just kind of remaking yourself all the time," Goffney said. "But I chose this, and I chose it 60 years ago. So, living in Houston, I'm always delighted to get back home no matter where I go."