Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain in southeast Texas left nearly 1 million Houston-area residents without power, according to reports from CenterPoint Energy after the storms passed. The downtown building and system of CenterPoint Energy suffered significant damage as a result of the weather on Thursday.
“While the severe weather has moved through our region, our crews are now able to assess the damage, and we can confirm that our system has sustained significant damage,” the power company stated.
Questions arose about the precise number of affected customers. However, CenterPoint assured that restoration efforts had commenced and would intensify on Friday morning as the extent of the damage became clearer.
“We are dedicated to safely and swiftly restoring power to our customers,” the company emphasized.
An Weather Alert Day remained in effect until Thursday evening.
As per CenterPoint Energy’s outage tracker at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, 852,412 customers were without power. This number had surged from 477,207 at 6:40 p.m. Within the hour, the outage count had significantly risen.
During the 24-hour period, 20,338 customers had their power restored by 7:30 p.m.
However, by 10:50 p.m., the outage tracker no longer provided information on the number of affected customers.
The majority of reported outages were concentrated in northwest Houston, both inside and outside the I-610 Loop.
For travelers entering or leaving Houston, flight status can be checked on the National Airspace System Status.
