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Fast - food range Whataburger ’s app has gone viral in the wake of Hurricane Beryl , which impart around1.8 million public utility company customersin Houston , Texas without power . Hundreds of thousands of those people may continue without power for sidereal day as Houston anticipates a warmth undulation , with temperatures climb into the mid-90s .
Amid frustrations with the local public utility company ship’s company CenterPoint Energy , which does n’t put up an app , some Houstonians get originative with their attempts to track the power outage . They rick to the Whataburger app alternatively .
The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker , ready to hand since the electric troupe does n’t show a mathematical function . Still nearly 1.9 million major power outages.pic.twitter.com/d8srWmw1oV
Whataburger is a San Antonio - based immobile - intellectual nourishment chain with127 storesin the Houston area , grant to Newsweek . On the Whataburger app , user can see a map of Whataburger locations , with an orangish logo point a storage is open , and a greyish logotype meaning it ’s closed .
Since CenterPoint Energy does n’t have an on-line map of outages , an tenner user with the screen name BBQBryan found that the map of which Whataburger stores are unfastened could be a useful cock for see where there ’s power .
“ The Whataburger app works as a superpower outage tracker , handy since the electric company does n’t show a mapping , ” BBQBryan wrote ina postthat now has over 22,000 likes and 6.9 million impressions .
“ Well there ’s a use for our app we did n’t think of ! ” the Whataburger X accountreplied . “ We hope you and everyone else are ok ! ”
This viral moment seems to have boosted Whataburger ’s download numbers . In the iOS App Store , Whataburger is currentlyranked 16thin the food and drink category . Justthree weeks ago , it was ranked fortieth .
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Though the Whataburger Book of Revelation is funny , the app ’s note value is revelatory of ongoing topic in Texas , where residents experience unsupported in the font of extreme weather . In 2021 , when Texas was come to with afierce wintertime storm , million of residents were left without top executive in dangerous , freezing conditions . To make subject worse , Senator Ted Cruz ( R - TX ) was spottedflying to a resort in Mexicowhile his state was in the thick of a historically fatal power gridiron loser . So , when Cruz made aposton Sunday urging Texans to stay good amid the hurricane ’s landfall , some part werefrustratedby the lip service and responded in kind on X.
It ’s an infrastructural failure that a burger app has become a crucial resourcefulness for Houston resident look for more information on index outage . The Whataburger app may be able-bodied to pop the question a vague mind of where there ’s big businessman , but there could be other ground why a memory is close — after all , Houston is in the immediate backwash of a natural disaster .
