GALVESTON, Texas – If you’ve been living in the Houston area for a while, you know all too well how quickly our weather can change.
Last year, Houston faced a series of severe weather events, including the derecho in May and Hurricane Beryl in July. These incidents caused widespread power outages, damaged infrastructure, and, tragically, resulted in fatalities.
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The May derecho was a powerful windstorm with gusts reaching up to 100 mph, causing significant damage across the area. We saw downed power lines, shattered windows, and falling trees, leaving over a million Houstonians without power for days, some even for weeks.
Then, when Hurricane Beryl hit as a Category 1 storm in July, it brought heavy rains, flooding, and further damage to our power infrastructure.
During both events, many Houstonians were left in the dark, not only without power but also with damaged cell phone towers, making it nearly impossible to stay updated on what was happening around them.
According to a study by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research on the impact of storms in Houston and Harris County, more than 7 in 10 residents lost power for over two days due to either the May storms or Hurricane Beryl. Seventy-two percent of Harris County residents experienced power outages lasting more than two days because of at least one of these extreme weather events. About 34% lost power for more than two days during both the May storms and Hurricane Beryl.
With hurricane season just around the corner, a KPRC 2 viewer reached out through our “2 Helps You” platform to ask about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) radio frequency, which keeps Galveston residents updated on the latest weather information, and why it’s been out of service since March.
To stay updated on when a transmitter is down in your area, click here.
On March 25, a fire broke out at the transmitter in Hitchcock, which is located in a rural part of Galveston with a population of over 7,000 people.
When KPRC 2 contacted officials at NOAA to ask when the signal would be back up, we were directed to a message on the National Weather Service website that reads, “We do not have an estimated time for a return to service.”
The Galveston frequency, 162.550 MHz, can be head on a “NOAA All Hazards” radio and delivers lifesaving information during severe storms. It’s also a resource used frequently by the public, local and state governments, and emergency responders.
For residents in Galveston and surrounding communities, NOAA Radio can be essential for staying informed and safe during severe weather events when they don’t have power or cell service.
When the lights are on and the phones are working, the information heard in that radio signal can be found in any number of weather apps, online at the National Weather Service website or by even calling the National Weather Service in Dickinson.
NOAA and its various divisions, like the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center, are the ones collecting and processing the data that weather apps like AccuWeather use for their daily forecasts. Hurricane forecasters also rely on data coming from a range of government-owned instruments: real-time measurements of ocean temperatures from a network of buoys and satellites and wind speeds from weather balloons. Those readings help scientists predict what the conditions leading up to hurricane season might say about the number of storms that could arrive this summer and their potential intensity.
On Feb. 27, NOAA laid off 880 employees, roughly 7% of the agency’s workforce, which had stood at around 12,000. These cuts are part of the broader federal reductions initiated under President Donald Trump‘s administration by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
To stay updated on weather events, visit here:
Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM)
National Weather Service (NWS) alerts
NWS river levels (water.weather.gov)
The Associated Press contributed to this report