As the latest winter storm approached Houston, a familiar scene unfolded. Packed grocery stores, jammed parking lots, empty store shelves, and long gas station lines. Call it the pre-storm panic. It has almost become a semi-annual tradition in Houston, with folks freaking out over an impending weather event, be it winter or summer. And it seems like it is happening more frequently in recent years.
Some critics believe this storm anxiety is due to a lack of preparation leaving people caught off guard. But others believe the anxiety comes from experience. "I don't really blame people," says Eric Berger, meteorologist with Space City Weather. "Going back to the freeze in February 2021 with days and days of power outages that no one was really expecting, and then with (Hurricane) Beryl---again a storm that took power offline and was a little more impactful than even some meteorologists expected, including myself."
"People have been through a lot of disasters here in Houston, so when they hear something unpleasant is coming they make preparations," he continues.
Still, he admits most of these events, including the current storm, are not on the scale of Uri or Beryl. "This is not something where there's going to be ice on roads for days and days, and we don't expect long power outages," says Berger. "So in this case, you only need to stock up on a week of provisions, or a couple of days worth...I'm not sure that message is getting out there."
Ultimately, this storm trauma is likely to continue repeating itself until the public believes there won't be a disastrous fallout like with Uri or Beryl. "When your public infrastructure fails like it did with those storms, people start to lose trust in those institutions like ERCOT and CenterPoint," says Berger. "And it's hard to win that trust back."
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