Historically, the worst of the hurricane season is over for the Houston area with about two months left. That’s good news for the roughly 10% of area residents who are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Beryl, which struck the region in July 2024.
That’s the latest finding in an ongoing study by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Houston Population Research Center into the area’s Beryl recovery effort.
Building on earlier reports, the latest survey data expands its scope to understand recovery patterns in Fort Bend, Montgomery and Harris counties, hearing from over 8,900 residents.
Results published this summer showed residents to be remarkably resilient with three-quarters reporting they had either mostly or completely returned to normal within weeks of the storm. However, for many households, especially those making less than $25,000, recovery remains a goal whose time has yet to come.
“There remain large portions of our population who are still not back,” said Daniel Potter, co-director of the Houston Population Research Center. “This survey presents leaders and organizations with an opportunity to provide immediate help and put practices in place to assist the vulnerable before another major weather event or disaster.”
Beryl made landfall July 8, 2024, leaving 42 people dead and causing wind damage estimated between $2.5 billion and $4.5 billion. While most residents in Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties (89%) have mostly moved on, the remaining 11% of those surveyed reported they still had recovered only somewhat or in some cases not at all.
“We surveyed people in the initial weeks following the storm, again about six months later, and finally about one year later,” Potter said. “We found that for many residents, they were able to bounce back within a matter of weeks, and another significant portion recovered within the first six months. But for those people who had not recovered by then, by and large they have still not recovered.”
Preparedness for future storms
In the immediate aftermath of Beryl, 7 of 10 respondents felt they knew how to better prepare for the next major storm. One year later, this appears to be the case with 72% of residents reporting they are moderately to extremely prepared should another disaster strike.
Trust in leadership, federal agencies and electric utility providers
In the event of another disaster, more Houston-area residents (nearly half) placed their trust in local leaders for an effective response. In contrast, only a quarter of residents gave state officials and federal agencies similarly high levels of trust.
Despite widespread criticism in the immediate aftermath of Beryl, one year later about a third of residents indicated they had a relatively high level of trust in electric utility providers.
“It may be because time has passed, we have had a major freeze event and some testing of the power grid,” Potter said. “But I would tell the electric utility providers: Whatever you have been doing, keep doing it.”
A note on research
This type of timely academic research was made possible by the Greater Houston Community Panel, which conducts multiple surveys each year from a sample of nearly 10,000 Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery county residents. Because of the existing and ready survey pool, this ongoing survey began gathering data even as people were still dealing with the immediate aftereffects of Beryl.
Media
To learn more about these statistics and other research, visit kinder.rice.edu/research.
To read additional Kinder Institute reporting on this study, visit Urban Edge.
To schedule an interview with the Kinder Institute’s experts, contact media relations specialist Kat Cosley Trigg at Kat.Cosley.Trigg@rice.edu.
Credit: Journalists are welcome to use this data in their reporting with proper attribution to Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.