Brazoria County working to recover after Hurricane Beryl: 'It's really, really bad'

Tuesday, July 9, 2024
BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Chrystalea Hebert has lived in Brazoria County for her entire life. She told ABC13 she has never seen a storm leave as much damage to Surfside Beach as Hurricane Beryl.

"It's really, really bad," she said.

Tuesday afternoon, Hebert was inspecting some of the homes where she works. Many houses along the beach had significant structural damage, such as missing roofs, missing siding, and exposed interiors.

"I've never seen anything like this," she said. "You can see through the homes."

Another sign of post-hurricane recovery could be found about five miles away. A long line of cars on FM-523 were there to get gas at Buc-ee's.



Weary residents told ABC13 that it's the only open place in the area.

SEE ALSO: Hurricane Beryl swallows Surfside Beach, hinders first responders, and destroys iconic homes

"I've been waiting here an hour and five minutes," Lizette Maldonado, who is also without power at her home, told Eyewitness News.

Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta said that's currently the county's most pressing issue.

"(Monday) we were 80 to 90% without power," Sebesta said.



Texas-New Mexico Power had more than 34,000 customers without power Tuesday afternoon, according to its outage tracker.

Meanwhile, CenterPoint wouldn't provide a specific number on how many of their customers in the county have been impacted.

They said they'd have a better outlook on total outages and restoration times by Wednesday.

"Aggravating," Freeport resident Anthony Harris said while waiting in line for gas. "Just completely horrible."

On a positive note, Sebesta did have one statistic he was proud to report.



"We've had no deaths or serious injuries," he said." We've been blessed here in that regard."

He added that debris is the other major issue they're facing as Brazoria County recovers from the storm.

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