HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Over a million customers of CenterPoint Energy in the Houston area remain without power three days after Hurricane Beryl struck, leaving residents frustrated and critical of the region’s primary energy provider. On Wednesday, a mural reading “CenterPointless” appeared on I-10 at Sawyer, reflecting the growing discontent among residents who blame the outage on systemic failures rather than the linemen working tirelessly to restore power.
In an update on Thursday evening, CenterPoint stated it aims to restore power to 80% of affected customers by the end of Sunday, July 14, and expects to provide estimated restoration dates for 70% of those still without power. By Friday, the company hopes to offer estimated restoration dates for nearly all impacted customers, potentially restoring power sooner than expected as work progresses.
CenterPoint’s Outage Tracker indicated that 1 million customers were still without power as of Thursday morning, with 1.2 million restored since the storm. With 2.26 million customers affected, this outage is the largest in the company’s history. Customers can use the company’s online Restoration Map to check repair progress in their neighborhoods. The map uses colors to indicate status: dark green means power is back with possible isolated outages, light green signifies power restoration with potential nested outages, blue shows crews are working on restoration, and orange indicates ongoing damage assessment.
CenterPoint estimates that an additional 400,000 customers will have power restored by Friday night, with another 350,000 by Sunday night. However, 400,000 customers will likely remain without power beyond Sunday, one week after the Category 1 storm hit.
There have been claims online, purportedly from out-of-state linemen, that contract negotiations have delayed their assistance. CenterPoint denies these claims, stating that crews from a dozen states are working 16-hour shifts and require rest to continue their efforts.
In response to the prolonged outage, many are questioning CenterPoint’s preparedness for the storm. In an interview with 13 Investigates, CenterPoint Energy acknowledged that more resilience work was needed ahead of Hurricane Beryl. Jason Ryan, the company’s executive vice president, discussed their “resiliency” plan, which involves significant upgrades. From 2025 to 2027, CenterPoint plans to invest $376 million to harden its transmission system by replacing old wooden power poles with stronger materials like concrete and upgrading larger power towers. An additional $31 million will be used to move some above-ground lines underground. Ryan expressed confidence that these measures would prepare the electric infrastructure for future storms.
The total cost of the plan is $1.45 billion, and CenterPoint is seeking federal grants to help fund it.
While CenterPoint is the primary energy provider in the Houston area, Entergy also serves some regions. Entergy has provided a detailed timeline for its restoration efforts, with power expected to be restored by Sunday for residents in New Caney and Conroe, and by Friday for those in Bolivar Peninsula and Huntsville. Entergy has restored power to over half of the 252,000 customers affected by Beryl.
