Hurricane Berylâs shockingly strong landfall on the Texas coast knocked out power for over a million Texans, who are relying on a particularly unusual source for power updatesâthe fast food chain Whataburgerâs mobile app.
Whataburgerâs app is feeding Texans weather updates because the outage map by key provider CenterPoint Energy hasnât worked since a wind storm hit the area in May, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Texans have a particularly wacky time weathering power outages because itâs the only state to have a power grid separate from the other major U.S. grid systems on the east and west coasts. Texansâ reliance on their geriatric power grid might be upended once more if a proposal from the Donald Trump-aligned policy making group, Project 2025, is implemented during Trumpâs possible second term.
Project 2025âs agenda calls for the National Weather Service to commercialize its free forecasting predictions, which is in line with other conservative demands to privatize storm forecasting.
Project 2025 also wants the National Hurricane Center to eliminate any information that leans to either side of the climate change debate, despite leading meteorologists insisting that the unusually catastrophic devastation Beryl left in its wake was aided by climate change.
Whataburgerâs official company account chimed in on the havoc Beryl is wreaking on the Lone Star State. âYâall be safe out there,â it posted on X, in response to a user confirming that the companyâs app was helping people track outages.
Ironically, tracking storm alerts through fast food store openings isnât a new survivor technique. The reliable, cheap and almost-always-open breakfast chain Waffle House has a store opening tracker that uses a red, yellow, and green traffic light system to gauge the severity of a storm, predicting how difficult it will be for users to access power and food security.
