Texas Senate forms special committee to look into Beryl response, with Brazos Valley senator as chairman
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Power has now been restored for the millions of Texans impacted by Beryl, and for some, it took over a week. The focus is now on why outages from the hurricane were so widespread – and so long-lasting.
On July 17, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced the creation of the Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness, Recovery, and Electricity.
Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, who represents the Brazos Valley in Austin, is serving as Chairman. Schwertner joined News 3 at Six to talk about the goals of the newly formed special committee.
“Our restoration was not accomplished in a timely manner and the Senate wants to understand what went wrong and what we need to do as a state, as regulatory agencies, as companies to make sure this never happens again,” said Schwertner. “You know, people rightly understand that hurricanes are significant weather events and have disruption of power, but what we saw just didn’t seem right regarding coordination and planning.”
Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, and lawmakers are concerned about how the state will fare with even stronger storms.
“We can’t have this happen ever again – things need to change,” said Schwertner. “We’re going to get to the bottom of the concern, learn the mistakes and the methodology that state needs to take going forward.”
The committee is set to hold a hearing on Monday, July 29.
Schwertner says the next steps could include a directive to the Public Utility Commission of Texas or even changes to the law.
