Tropical Storm Beryl: Texas Storm Destruction Update

Hurricane Beryl left more than 2.7 million customers in Texas without power as of 12:59 p.m. Monday, according to estimates from PowerOutage.us and CenterPoint Energy.

CenterPoint said at 3:30 p.m. it had begun restoring power to 2.26 million customers in Texas. Power was scarce, and CenterPoint has not yet provided an estimate for when power will be restored to millions of customers.

“We are mobilizing all available resources, as well as mutual aid resources from other utilities, to begin the process of quickly and safely restoring power to our customers,” said Lynne Wilson, CenterPoint’s senior vice president of electric operations. “We understand how difficult it can be to be without any power, especially in the heat, and we are fully committed to the important and urgent work that lies ahead.”

CenterPoint will begin releasing estimates for significant power restoration after assessing the damage.

Power outages are most widespread in the Houston area and coastal counties, including Matagorda, where Category 1 Hurricane Beryl made landfall around 4 a.m. Monday. Large-scale outages are also occurring in Galveston, Calhoun and Jackson counties. As the morning progressed, the outages spread further inland, including areas of East Texas including Polk, San Jacinto, Montgomery, Grimes and Washington counties.

Most of the outages are among customers who get power from CenterPoint Energy, the primary supplier of power to most residents of Harris and Fort Bend counties, as well as dozens of communities in East Texas. The supplier is not currently releasing outage numbers by county.

CenterPoint warned people to stay away from downed power lines and not try to remove tree branches or objects entangled in them, and customers are encouraged to report outages or unsafe conditions to their utility company or local authorities.

As of midday, about 25,000 AEP Texas customers remained without power. Most of the outages are in the north Corpus Christi area, in a loop stretching from Port Lavaca to Bay City, El Campo and Victoria. AEP crews began restoring power to some customers on Monday, and more information on restoration is expected within the next 24 hours.

For the more than 25,000 Oncor Electric Delivery customers affected by the outages, power restoration will likely be done on a case-by-case basis, Oncor spokeswoman Kaity Blake said.

— Pooja Salhotra and Berenice Garcia