TMO clergy and local leaders were joined by Patricia Darnauer, executive vice president and administrator of LBJ Hospital, at a press conference held at St. Francis de Assisi Catholic Church. 

[Excerpts]

TMO seeks accountability, more aggressive outreach, and transparency so the general public knows what’s going on and collaboration so Harris County residents aren’t running around like chickens with their heads cut off” seeking much-needed resources like food, water, and medicine....

Community and faith leaders joined North Houston residents under the banner of The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) announcing they are in the process of scheduling a meeting with Houston’s Mayor John Whitmire “to discuss the [power] outage, the response to the outage and to look at future activities that need to happen to be proactive so that we can prevent this [in the future].”

“Because we know this is just the first hurricane, early in the season, and we’ve got a long way to go,” said Linda Hollins a TMO leader and member of Trinity United Methodist Church.

But TMO members didn’t wait for the yet solidified meeting date with Whitmire to voice their frustrations over the slow, and in many cases still non-existent, restoration of power to the 180,000 citizens across Houston and Harris County still in the dark, and more specifically residents of the Kashmere Gardens/Fifth Ward community where their press conference convened at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

[Photo Credit: Aswad Walker, Houston Defender]

TMO Leaders Demand Action, Accountability on Slow Hurricane Beryl Response, Houston Defender [pdf]

Religious Leaders Demand Action for Remaining Powerless Homes, Houston Chronicle [pdf]

Survey Shows More Than Half of Families Still Struggling After Beryl, CW39 Houston [pdf]

6:31am Newscast, July 16th , Houston Public Media

[Excerpt]

When Hurricane Ida knocked out the eight transmission lines carrying electricity into New Orleans in September, many people spent days in the dark.

Brenda Lomax-Brown, president of the city’s Hollygrove-Dixon Neighborhood Association, said median incomes of around $30,000 made it difficult for many in the area to evacuate or afford generators. Challenges included spoiled food, the inability to refrigerate medicine, and the difficulty for the elderly to find a place to stay cool. Cell phones died and cut off communications.

“People were desperate,” said Ms. Lomax-Brown. “Without your phone you can’t communicate with your loved ones who may be out of town, or with your neighbors to let them know how their house fared.”

New Orleans nonprofits are now stepping in to try to provide emergency power. Together New Orleans, a coalition of religious and civic groups, is raising money to add rooftop solar with batteries to 85 congregations and community centers. Their goal is for everyone in New Orleans to be a mile or less away from what they are calling “community lighthouses,” said Gregory Manning, pastor at Broadmoor Community Church.

“You get the ordinary benefits of solar, but if and when the grid goes out, you’ve got a real network that can respond,” said Together New Orleans organizer Broderick Bagert.

[Photo: Pastor Gregory Manning Broadmoor Community Church, New Orleans, LA. Credit Kathleen Flynn, Wall Street Journal]

Wary of Being Left in the Dark, Americans Produce Their Own Power, Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Hiller [pdf]

[Excerpts]

The virtual press conference was organized by the Network of Texas IAF Organizations — a nonpartisan coalition of 10 primarily faith-based organizations across the state that represents more than 1 million people — and The Metropolitan Organization, a Houston-based civic group, to keep public attention on the aftermath of the widespread power outages that occurred earlier this year....

Texas IAF has thrown support behind Senate Bill 3, which would mandate weatherization under federal energy regulation guidelines. The bill passed on March 29 and now moves to the House. It would also impose penalties for noncompliance, increase coordination among state energy regulating bodies and create an emergency alert system.

"Our families have already suffered enough," said the Rev. Minerva Camarena-Skeith of St. John's Episcopal Church [of Central Texas Interfaith] in Austin. "They have paid more than their fair share of the cost for the mistakes of the energy industry and the unwillingness of the legislature to regulate the energy industry."

As legislation trudges through the legislature, the struggles continue across the state, members of The Metropolitan Organization said during the press conference. The budget strain of paying for repairs, they said, is especially felt by people living in apartments, whose landlords may not cover costs, as well as mobile home park residents and the elderly.

Pipes also burst at the home of Sorina Serrano, who is still waiting for repairs. A leader with The Metropolitan Organization Houston and member of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, Serrano said her home insurance coverage expired in March and other insurers have told her they won't cover the house until the repairs are made.

[Photo Credit: Isabelle Baldwin/CNS Photo]

After Texas' Winter Storm Disaster, Faith Leaders Press for Legislation to Ensure 'Never Again', Earthbeat- National Catholic Reporter [pdf]

[Excerpts]

Texans did what they could in the dark. They filled hotels to capacity. Others found refuge in warming stations, sleeping on buses. Some who stayed home lit small fires to huddle around. Too many had no choice but to layer up and pray.

Adriana Godines [in photo at right] and her family in East Dallas went 40 hours without power. Her 10-year-old daughter, Andrea, woke up at night crying because she was cold.

“We were some of the lucky ones,” she said.

By Friday, power had been restored to nearly every Texan. But the state and its people were already facing the next disasters. Grocery store shelves are barren. Water, if it’s running, must be boiled in half the state. Homes, apartments and businesses are deluged.

Four feet of water flooded Friendship West Baptist Church’s resource center in southern Dallas, said the Rev. Frederick Haynes. The 30,000-square-foot building includes a food pantry and gently used clothing store.

“We’re trying to save as much as possible,” he said. “People are literally dying and suffering, who did not have to die and who did not have to suffer, if Texas had been responsible to regulate institutions that are supposed to keep us safe.”

'They Were Not Prepared': After Winter Crisis, Texas Will Have to Confront its Energy, Politics, and Culture, Dallas Morning News [pdf]