HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Over 1 million households have been enduring severe conditions without power for more than 48 hours after Hurricane Beryl struck southeast Texas.
A Heat Advisory has been extended through Wednesday night, with hot, humid conditions persisting.
According to CenterPoint Energy’s Outage Tracker, over 1.1 million customers remain without power. At Beryl’s peak on Monday, more than 2.2 million customers, about 80% of CenterPoint’s customers, lost power.
Previously, CenterPoint aimed to have 1 million of those initial 2.2 million customers back online by the end of Wednesday. The company has indicated that restoring electricity will be a multi-day process.
CenterPoint released a new map overnight to show customers the work being done in their neighborhoods. Click [here](link) to check your neighborhood’s status on the map.
The map highlights areas across Houston in four colors:
– **Green**: Power is back, though isolated outages to individual homes could remain.
– **Light Green**: Power is back, but with potential nested outages.
– **Blue**: Crews have been assigned to restore power and are working on it.
– **Orange**: CenterPoint is still assessing damage.
However, has received reports from viewers that some neighborhoods indicated as having power restored are still in the dark. CenterPoint is providing updates as they receive more information.
CenterPoint’s restoration process includes five categories:
1. **Impact evaluation and resource mobilization**: Crews assess the damage and mobilize resources.
2. **Critical infrastructure assessment**: Focus on essential facilities critical to health and public safety.
3. **Community infrastructure assessment/repair**: Address issues at the circuit level that affect large numbers of customers.
4. **Neighborhood infrastructure repair**: Address fuse-level issues if surrounding neighborhoods have power but some areas do not.
5. **Street infrastructure repair**: Address more isolated issues like damaged transformers.
“We have never seen an incident of this magnitude. This is the largest outage in our history,” said CenterPoint VP of Distribution Operations and Service Delivery, Brad Tutunjian, during a council meeting on Wednesday. “I’ve been with CenterPoint Energy for 26 years now. I’ve worked in this region – southeast Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi. I’ve responded to quite a few hurricanes, and not just ours but other utilities as well. And I can tell you the amount of work to set up and prepare is monumental.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire has continuously criticized CenterPoint’s restoration efforts.
“They can do better,” he said during an afternoon press conference. He also expressed frustration upon learning that the Astros played in a lit stadium while millions were without power. “The city has done a poor job in prioritizing their expenses,” Whitmire added.
Meanwhile, Entergy Texas is set to restore power for 50% of impacted customers by the end of Wednesday, and 75% by the end of Friday. A workforce of more than 1,600 will continue working around the clock.
was live at the Sam Houston Race Park on Wednesday morning, one of 17 CenterPoint staging areas across Houston, where numerous trucks were lined up with crews preparing to head out for the day.
While CenterPoint has brought in extra crews to assist with repairs, with 12,000 workers spread out across the region, some Texas leaders are questioning the response and whether the company did enough.
“If they made mistakes, and we don’t know if they did or not, that will be addressed by the PUC and the state legislature. That’s our job,” Acting Gov. Dan Patrick said, emphasizing the need for CenterPoint to focus on restoring power.
One common criticism is that crews are sitting around for hours, waiting for assignments.
A CenterPoint spokesperson acknowledged at least three cases of this happening and stated that changes have been made to prevent it.
“We’ve found it’s more productive if we do the assessment and then go out to where the need is, otherwise we’re just randomly sending them out,” said Paul Lock with CenterPoint. “So, it’s painful for a day or two, but it’s more efficient in the long run.”
Customers may experience intermittent power restoration. CenterPoint explained that crews might temporarily cut power to some areas to help restore it to others. If your power goes out again, it shouldn’t be for long.
State officials are asking residents not to call 911 about power outages. On Monday, nearly 16,000 calls to 911 were about power outages. Instead, residents are encouraged to call CenterPoint at 713-207-2222.
For those needing assistance, cooling centers and other resources are available. Find a cooling center near you [here](link).
