The Emerging Danger of Post-Hurricane Heat Waves
With global warming making people increasingly dependent on air conditioning, power failures from hurricanes followed by heat waves are creating increasingly hazardous risks to health.
Left: Toppled utility poles litter a road as crews work to restore power in the wake of Hurricane Ida on September 2, 2021 in Albany, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images). Right: The Coleman family sit powerless on their porch in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl on July 12, 2024 in Houston, Texas. “We been here since the day it started. Rain came in, power went out; you know how hurricanes be. We been sitting like this for 5 days. Ain’t nobody came out to see us or nothing. I’ve spent over $400 in gas to keep us cool. The nights have been horrible. We gotta sleep in the truck because it’s the only place that has air. Every hotel is booked, so there really ain’t no sleep, I mean if you do sleep you sleep for about a hour or two because of the heat,” said the Coleman family.
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On July 8, 2024, Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas, as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph (130 km/h) winds. The storm’s eyewall passed over heavily populated Houston, triggering a massive and deadly power outage that affected 2.7 million customers. Over 1 million customers in Houston were without electricity three days later, and 226,000 were still without power eight days later. The day after Beryl hit, Houston Hobby Airport hit 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1°C), with a heat index of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40°C), prompting a heat advisory by the National Weather Service, warning that those with no air conditioning could suffer from heat-related illnesses and that “the widespread loss of power and air conditioning across [southeast Texas] could make for dangerous conditions.”
Historically, hurricanes have caused four main hazards: wind, storm surge, heavy rain, and tornadoes. But we can now add an increasingly dangerous fifth hazard: hotter post-landfall heat waves after a massive storm-caused power failure. In the old climate, hurricanes typically struck after the peak summer season for heat waves. But as the climate warms and heat waves occur later in the year, the chance of extremely hot weather coinciding with a hurricane increases. And since 1970, the Atlantic hurricane season has been getting longer, with the increases mainly associated with storms forming earlier in the calendar year, when extreme heat is also more likely. Hurricane Beryl of 2024 in Houston was a harbinger in that regard, hitting the city on July 8 — over two months before the peak of hurricane season.
With global warming making people increasingly dependent on air conditioning, power failures from hurricanes, followed by heat waves, are creating increasingly hazardous risks to health. A century ago, many people in hurricane country – even those of modest means – lived in structures designed to cool down naturally. For example, the notorious “shotgun shacks,” narrow single-story homes, were smartly designed for hot climates, with long side hallways that allowed breezes to blow from front to back. Modern structures designed with air conditioning in mind (including large picture windows that don’t necessarily open, for example) could be much more prone to heating up when the power is out.