On Monday morning, Hurricane Beryl, a Category 1 storm, struck Houston, causing significant devastation. The storm resulted in at least four fatalities in Houston, left millions without electricity, and caused extensive damage to numerous properties, including the NRG Stadium, which is the home of the Houston Texans NFL team. The powerful winds from the storm caused several large panels to be blown off the stadium’s retractable roof.
“Like many of our neighbors in the Gulf Coast region, NRG Park sustained damage from Hurricane Beryl, including to the roof of NRG Stadium,” NRG Park CEO and executive director Ryan Walsh said in a statement Tuesday, via ESPN. “HCSCC [Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation] officials are collaborating with state, county and city officials to assist with recovery efforts throughout the region. This collective undertaking requires all of us to work together with a strong commitment to our community. While we assist with these efforts, we are also assessing the extent of damages to NRG Park facilities. We look forward to seeing our neighbors at NRG Park soon as we return to normal operations.”
According to multiple weather reports, Houston recorded at least a 74 mph wind gust, with higher gusts in the Houston metro area and more than 90 mph winds in some areas along the Gulf Coast.
Beryl isn’t the first hurricane to send damages to the NRG Stadium. In 2008, when Hurricane Ike, a Category 2 storm, struck Houston, it caused significant damage to five sections of the stadium. According to the New York Daily News, the damages resulted in $10 million worth of renovations, including $4 million toward the roof, and the Texans had to postpone their home opener in September against the Baltimore Ravens.
This time, the Texans were fortunate that the missing panels were considered minor damages. The stadium should be fixed well before the team takes the field for their first preseason game on Aug. 17 against the New York Giants, about a month before their first official home game against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 15.
Before the NFL season kicks off, the NRG Stadium will host other events in the near future, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey beginning July 19., concerts by Zach Bryan and Luke Combs and a Leagues Cup group-stage game between the Liga MX’s Tigres and MLS’s Inter Miami CF on Aug. 3.
The NRG Stadium, which opened in Houston in 2002, the same year the Texans entered the NFL as Houston’s pro team. Apart from hosting Texans games, the stadium has been the venue for two Super Bowls, the College Football Playoff national championship game, multiple Final Four tournaments, and the famous Houston Rodeo.
Even with the damaged roof, the NRG Stadium is still being used for a good cause. According to ABC 13, the stadium state officials have turned parts of the NRG Park into a temporary field hospital or a “transition facility.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stated that the facility will accommodate up to 250 patients, providing them with hospital beds to support Houston’s healthcare system, due to the multiple power outages caused by Beryl, where nearly 1.3 million utility customers remained without power on Wednesday. Doctors decided that discharging some patients to homes without air-conditioning wasn’t safe.
“We are sending 25 ambulances because we have a backup at our hospitals because they can’t discharge patients because patients can’t go home if they don’t have power,” Patrick said during a news press conference. “So everything is backing up.”
The Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation CEO, Ryan Walsh, sent a statement about the county-owned stadium.
“NRG Park sustained damage from Hurricane Beryl, including to the roof at NRG Stadium. HCSCC officials are collaborating with state, county, and city officials to assist with recovery efforts throughout the region. While we assist with these efforts, we also assess the extent of damage to NRG Park facilities.”
On Wednesday, at a different news conference, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the backups affected numerous hospitals in Houston. He mentioned that 29 hospitals in the area were operating under internal disaster protocols on Tuesday.
Kidd said the hospital physicians and doctors will decide which patients to send to the NRG Arena facility.
“It’s in the patient’s best interest not to send them to a place that doesn’t have power, that they can’t keep their medications refrigerated,” Kidd said Wednesday. “So that’s why we provide this additional facility to be able to ease the burden on those hospitals right now that are overcrowded.”
As of now, NRG Stadium is closed to the public. Officials said patients must be discharged from a hospital to go to the NRG Arena medical shelter. No one would be brought to the shelter directly from an emergency, they said.
In addition to NRG Park helping Beryl victims, other places around Houston will use their facilities as cooling stations for anyone in need.
Here are a list of places you can contact:
- Bayland Community Center: 6400 Bissonnet Street in Houston
- Radack Community Center: 18650 Clay Road in Houston
- Weekley Community Center: 8440 Greenhouse Road in Cypress
Several cooling stations in Harris County will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to provide food and water distribution, charging stations and Wi-Fi where there is power, according to Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey.
- Crosby Community Center: 409 Hare Road in Crosby
- Big Stone Lodge: 709 Riley Fuzzel Road in Spring
- Trini Mendenhall Community Center: 1414 Wirt Road in Houston
- Juergen’s Hall Community Center: 26026 Hempstead Road in Cypress
Food distribution
Harris County Precinct 2 posted to X the locations of three food distributions, and officials will provide updates when more power is restored.
Here are the food distribution locations:
- Leonel Castillo Community Center: 2101 South Street in Houston
- Grayson Community Center: 13828 Corpus Christi Street in Houston
- EHCAC: 7340 Spencer Highway in Pasadena
Academy bottled water distribution
A spokesperson for Academy Sports and Outdoors said the Katy-based company will be distributing nearly 8,000 packs of bottled water to the public Wednesday starting at 9 a.m.
The 24-count packs of water bottles will distributed for free Wednesday from 18-wheelers parked in front of the following Academy locations:
- Kirby & I-59 — 2404 Southwest Freeway
- Katy — 23155 Katy Freeway
- Baytown — 6425 Garth Road
- Rosenburg — 23801 Brazos Town Crossing
- Texas 6 & U.S. 290 — 19720 Northwest Freeway
Montgomery County cooling centers
Several shelters have opened in Montgomery County for residents as recovery begins after Tropical Storm Beryl brought damaging winds causing widespread power outages Monday, according to Judge Mark Keough. Keough said additional shelters are expected to open and will be announced when they are ready.
The shelter locations are:
- Lone Star Community Center at 2500 Lone Star Parkway in Montgomery
- West County Community Development Center at 31355 Friendship Drive in Magnolia
- East Montgomery County Community Development Center at 16401 1st Street in Splendora
- The Salvation Army at 304 Avenue E. in Conroe
- Underover Fellowship at 600 S. Frazier Street in Conroe
- Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Parish, 26777 Glen Loch Drive in The Woodlands
