Jim
By Allan Schurr
Chief Commercial Officer

The strength of last week’s devastating severe weather in Houston generated a lot of media comparisons to hurricanes, specifically Hurricane Ike which hit the Houston metro area in 2008. The May 16th storm has been classified as a derecho, which is a destructive cluster of extremely strong thunderstorms that are characterized by straight-line winds and can extend for hundreds of miles. There were similarities to Ike, like peak windspeeds of around 110 mph, extensive power outages, and other damage caused by wind. But there were differences too.

Much of this storm’s impact was concentrated in the Houston area—with damage occurring in four Texas counties and isolated damage in Louisiana. Hurricane Ike, on the other hand, traveled for days across the Caribbean and Gulf Coast, causing a widespread path of damage from Corpus Christi to Louisiana before heading north and eventually dissipating in Canada.

Both weather events resulted in major recovery efforts, but a curious difference between last week’s storm and Hurricane Ike is that the former had no name assigned to it. There was no advance tracking, no build up (sometimes labeled as “hype”) on the Weather Channel, and local news outlets only prepared citizens for a run-of-the-mill, springtime thunderstorm. There was no prepositioning of emergency services by FEMA and the Red Cross, and local electric utilities conducted no advance staging. Weather forecasters only provided a warning of “possible” severe weather 24 hours before last week’s derecho.

My goal is to highlight the fact that this storm and so many like it are no longer an anomaly. These unnamed storms can happen almost anywhere and without much notice, if any. And yet the devastation is practically the same. At its peak, more than 1 million Houston area households and businesses were without power due to this storm—the same as the named Winter Storm Uri, which was a multi-day event in 2021. Similarly, crews have been working 24/7 to repair the system after this derecho, and some outages could last a week or longer before power is restored.

While we can’t name every outbreak of severe weather, we can prepare for longer, multi-day power outages by investing in resiliency for the grid, for businesses, and for our communities. Microgrids are one way to protect your assets and personal safety from “anonymous storm” impact. Over the last six days, Enchanted Rock natural gas microgrids have delivered more than 1,700 hours of utility-grade power (and counting) without needing to refuel. They will continue to do so until power is restored to our customers. At that point, our microgrids will move back into standby, supporting the grid during supply – demand imbalance and providing their host with peace of mind during unplanned outages.

It’s no longer about preparing for the possibility of long-duration outages from severe weather year-round; it’s about preparing for the inevitable. Regardless of where you live or conduct business, high wind weather patterns are becoming more extreme—tornado activity is moving further east in the U.S., and winter storms are creeping into areas of California and Texas. And with spring storms here and hurricane season right around the corner, the Gulf Coast and southeastern region of the U.S. will surely see their fair share of both named and unnamed storms.

Right now, the focus is recovery and restoring power to the community. But this is also the time to take stock of what happened and figure out how we can be better prepared for future storms, even the anonymous ones that sneak up on us.

This article was originally posted on Allan Schurr’s LinkedIn profile.