HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — CenterPoint Energy announced Friday night that they expect to restore power to 85% of customers affected by Hurricane Beryl by the end of the weekend.
The updated estimate was accompanied by a revamped restoration map featuring eight color codes. These include forest green for areas already energized and seafoam green for areas pending review. Other colors represent dates ranging from July 12 to July 19.
As of 9:30 p.m. Friday, 678,931 customers remained without power, while power had been restored to around 1.5 million customers.
Despite ongoing storms and expected rain on Saturday, CenterPoint stated that weather would not impact restoration efforts unless there is lightning. Crews did pause work on Friday afternoon due to safety concerns.
CenterPoint urged the public to maintain a safe distance from working crews, citing safety as their top priority. The company reported receiving numerous threats against their employees.
“Safety is our number one priority. We have received numerous reports of threats being made to our employees and crews,” CenterPoint stated on social media.
With 2.26 million customers affected, this outage is the largest in CenterPoint’s history.
CenterPoint acknowledged that approximately 400,000 customers will remain without power beyond Sunday. Customers may experience prolonged outages as crews install new distribution poles, overhead conductors, and other critical equipment in severely damaged areas.
In an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle, CenterPoint’s CEO defended the company’s response, highlighting the restoration of 1.1 million customers within 48 hours, faster than previous responses to named storms. However, he acknowledged the need for better communication with customers.
Acting Gov. Dan Patrick has called for an investigation into CenterPoint’s preparedness for the storm. Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee also reached out to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate CenterPoint’s service lapses, which she claims endanger customers’ lives.
