GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Vacuums had been sucking up water at the seaside inn run by Nick Gaido’s family in Galveston since 1911 as power was still spotty nearly a week after a The resurgence of Hurricane Beryl swept through Texas. A blue tarp covered much of the torn-off roof. Gaido scheduled cleaning shifts for hotel and restaurant staff, who could not afford to miss shifts due to the prolonged outages.
The Fourth of July weekend was supposed to kick off a lucrative tourism season for the hotel industry in this popular getaway. But only dozens of them dotted the normally crowded beaches a week later. Gaido felt an urgent need to send the message that Galveston, Texas, is open again.
“We’ve dealt with storms in late August or September,” Gaido said. “But when there’s a storm in early July, that’s different.”
Galveston — about 50 miles southeast of Houston — has certainly weathered its share of natural disasters. Etched into their collective memory is the fury of a 1900 hurricane that killed thousands of people at a time when the island was emerging as the state’s crown jewel. More recently, Hurricane Ike 2008 Wrath it flooded its historic center with storm surges up to 20 feet high and caused more than $29 billion in damage.
However, Houston’s even savvy neighbors were caught off guard by Beryl’s sudden arrival. With an unusually early impact on the calendar, the Category 1 hurricane has crippled the island’s tourism-based economy at a time when local restaurants depend on an influx of beachgoers to boost revenue. Despite widespread power outages, businesses and residents are trying hard.
On the hardest-hit west side of Jamaica Beach, the Way West Grill and Pizzeria was still without power Saturday afternoon. Owner Jake Vincent felt stuck in limbo: He had heard power would return on July 19, but was hopeful it would come sooner.
The loss ruined his entire inventory. He said enough mozzarella cheese to fill the back of his truck was wasted. Also ruined was an 8-foot trunk filled with fries and about 3,000 pounds of pepperoni.
Vincent is no longer expecting much from a year he predicted would finally bring “daylight” to his family restaurant founded in 2018. He said the majority of annual sales occur during the three summer months and that “this tourism season It’s probably over for .”
“That complicates things,” he said. “You save all your money from the summer to get through the winter.”
Downed cables and orange construction cones could be found along the road that connects the tourist area’s seafood shacks to the colorful short-term rentals of the west end. Crews at Houston-area dealership CenterPoint stood on the elevators, sweating as they restored line after line.
Still no power on Saturday morning, Greg Alexandre swept the debris to the side of the street in his Jamaica Beach neighborhood. Despite sleeping in a room at balcony level in an already elevated house, he said water was coming in through the windows. Beryl’s horizontal winds threw rain straight onto his bed.
It’s just a part of life here for Alexander. His family moved full-time to Galveston in 2017 after he said Hurricane Harvey dumped 14 inches of water on his Lake City (mainland?) home. Without power, he said they are “appreciating our car’s air conditioning more than ever.”
He doesn’t plan to leave. He said trials only strengthen the community.
“People in the far west are not like everyone else,” he said.
Steve Broom and Debra Pease still lacked energy on Saturday but were facing pressure elsewhere. Broom said they had already booked a hotel in Houston this week so their daughter could use the beach house in Galveston, where they have lived full time for about five years. They only spent the first night in Galveston and chose to sleep the rest of the week in their non-refundable room.
Steve Broom, 72, said he had never seen a hurricane arrive as early or grow as quickly as Beryl. Still, he joked that only one factor could force him to leave the island where he grew up.
“If they destroy all these houses, we will be in the front row and the value of our properties will probably double or triple,” he said, before clarifying: “No, I hope that doesn’t happen.”
Anne Beem and her husband come every July from San Antonio to celebrate their birthdays. For her, the consequences were much worse than the hurricane itself.
They enjoyed a nice breeze with the windows open after the storm passed on Monday. But she said Tuesday night brought “mosquito-geddon.” Hundreds of bugs filled the house, so they slept in the car with the air conditioning on.
She said they also purchased a kiddie pool to cool off before the power came back on Thursday night.
“We just try to look at it as an adventure,” she said. “Every day was a new hell.”
